Unlimited Jargon

Original news in blogs and the dilemmas

When trawling across the "blogosphere" the majority of blogs that go beyond providing a daily diary of personal trivia tend to get their information from the mainstream news media such as the BBC. They then add a comment, spin or other fact, repost it and the world comes and reads it. Sites such as Digg and Slashdot have basically grown around this model.

The problem however seems to be that the end result is a concentration of power in few hands. When blogging began it was a revolution and a few eminent bloggers such as Iain Dale grew very popular this way. Increasingly now however blogs are simply just serving as link sites to media groups with the resources to research news.

How can this process be challenged? Should bloggers all try and find their own news? Perhaps the real role for bloggers is helping the world determine what is important rather than it all being controlled by the mass media?

One thing is clear though - it is still very hard for bloggers to be heard.

Labels: Politics

posted by Caesar on Sunday, May 18, 2008