Blogs e jornalismo

Recomendo a leitura do artigo The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened to Journalism, de Ralph Kinney Bennett.

Bloggers are the best thing that has ever happened to journalism.###

They make a good reporter look better. They expose the phonies, the poseurs, the fast-writing conmen, with the speed of light.

They give the journalist a greater access to more information and informational context than ever before.

They provide swift exposure to varied points of view, and, most importantly, a constant, sometimes rough, but always important gauge of a reporter's skill, judgment, industriousness and integrity.

Never before has weak reporting, biased reporting, dishonest reporting, or lazy reporting been more swiftly exposed.

Indeed, the whole idea of whether journalism is indeed a profession -- or just a happy combination of craft, curiosity, cleverness and confidence tricks -- is being tested for the first time out there in the ether.

(...)

As blogs proliferate, the market is ruthless. If you can't be provocative, informative, or at least fun, you die. If you're dealing in phony crap, the electronic public catches on pretty fast. The visits disappear. I'm constantly pruning my "favorites" list. And adding to it, too.

In an hour, I can race through link after link of scholarly articles, position papers, news broadcast transcripts, weapons specifications, historical documents, statistics, informed and uninformed opinions, scraps of thoughts, bits of video, photographs, maps, animated schematics, you name it.

Blogs are not a substitute for the dogged, primary source reporting that still marks great journalism. But they bring a new efficiency to the "hunt," and enhance the journalist's reach and grasp of the world to a degree never before possible.

They are forcing the journalistic priesthood out of the temple. It's disconcerting. It's fun. And it's good, real good.