Online Journalism: The Wild West

BY BARCODE 2X

The conventional news media has a strong bias, and editors keep fierce control over what news we recieve. But along with the institutionalization of the media comes a sense of ethics and standards. Despite the character of the news, and despite what candidates the paper endorses, the conventional news media still has a set of standards and truth-telling mechanisms.

The print media is in trouble, and the shift towards online news media began long ago. The weblog or 'blog' established itself as a news source as the internet grew in popularity. But a blog does not require any journalistic ethics, no accountability, no real fact-checking. The blog is the renegade news, unbound by convention. Maybe the voice of a blogger is more straightforward and candid than that of a conventional journalist. A blog should not have editors; it should be published raw, up to the minute, as the news is occuring. It should be written on a Blackberry and uploaded as quickly as possible. The blog is the first-response team. The blog is the gut reaction to the event. Blogging is reflexive. We have opinions, and we share them. But when blogs find their audience, they should not be confused with the actual news.

Here are some of the problems we will face when we have to switch entirely over to internet-based news coverage:

1. The news is only accessible to those with reliable internet access. There will be segments of the population that no longer can tune in analog TV, can no longer get a daily paper, and have no internet. Digital connectivity will further divide the haves and the have-nots. Is connectivity going to be necessary to being a citizen of the new world?
2. Internet blogs and instant news have the potential to stir up a general panic. One false account of an outbreak of disease could send our entire culture into a frenzy. With the high speed of the internet and the knee-jerk journalism of the medium, paranoia could spread faster than any disease could.
3. New popular news sources will emerge. The news we get online from various blogs and independent citizen journalists is bound to be more partisan and more biased than any existing news source. The next big Fox News-type sensation will be an independent internet news station.  Popular independent news channels will emerge on the internet for both the Right and Left. Imagine when the freedom of independent satellite radio hits the TV. What we consider News is often just commentary and punditry. The trend will only grow in the next wave of new media.
4. Media heroes will cease to exist. There will not be an Edward R. Murrow to be found in the world of internet news. All news journalists will have the potential to challenge the system. One journalist or blogger will have little opportunity to make a difference.

We should embrace the new technology. What other choice is there? Maybe we are the editors in chief now. We are the ones who decide what voices to believe. All too often we co-opt the opinions we hear on the radio or TV news and regurgitate these opinions as if they were our own. Now we become the news authority. We filter our own information. We have choices to make.

But when the internet news revolution truly occurs and we get all of our news from disparate sources, I wonder if conventional structures will once again emerge. Will small independent news sources adopt the practices of old, large news corporations? Combining new technology with old journalistic ethics of fairness and balance, will the independents come to resemble the big corporate news media in time?

Journalists need to be accountable. How will internet news providers train themselves to be reliable news sources? Where will new media corporations learn their ethics?

The print media is drying up each day. Will the internet news be ready to take its place? Will the content be reliable enough? We may only have a few days to catch up to where the print media has been since the days of Benjamin Franklin and his printing press. News media on the internet must have a system for accountability and reliability. Because blogs won't cut it anymore.