The Modern Blogosphere and the Specialization of Media

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In ways that traditional print media was never able to, new media has used blogging and online communication to encourage journalists and other independent writers. This international digital phenomenon has given the reader choice as to what information they flood their minds with, as barriers have been torn down between nations. And besides being told news from an international basis, communication has become a most necessary aspect of modern independent journalism, giving both sides of the conversation insight on audiences interests, while also keeping journalistic motive with less a hindrance on creativity.

At the turn of the century, the newspaper was created in attempt to combat an informational ‘space bias’. When British colonies first found home in Canadian provinces (western especially) the entire extent of information, the world of those settlers did literally exist within a few dozen acres. In the late 18th and early 19th century, with the industrial revolution, worlds grew exponentially. Cities were situated around the, then new, Canadian Railway system, wherein the industries were within a convenient distance of its workers homes.

With the Railway, came communication between the workers that travelled, first vocally and then in written prose. That being said, the type of communication differed municipally and federally and paper was just that much easier to ship. With availability constraints such as these, there was never much choice and back then, there was never much knowledge of choice; worlds had expanded dramatically, but in comparison to the modern day information, it was still extremely limited. Receiving outdated updates on provinces on either side of you was, in retrospect, nothing but a glimpse of the upcoming global neighborhood soon to be catapulted a vast by technological advancements.

The year between the creation of the World Wide Web (circa December 25, 1990) by Time Berners-Lee and the Internet-age of lately has been often likened to the years the CPR was developed (1881-1885). With information in such an expanding and transportable form and especially with technologies like that of RSS (Real Simple Syndication) the collection has become even simpler. Opinions are made and sold internationally, wherein Journalistic integrity would writers against a code of conduct designed not to offend anyone, and that is where technology shows its most poignant, yet controversial affect on the world of independent journalism. There are legions of intelligent, rebellious and respectively entrenched writers all around the world.

In August 23, 2005, the United States of America was hit, especially New Orleans, with the record breaking and tragic assault by hurricane Katrina, reaping an excess of $80 billion US dollars in damages. One of the most criticized and a controversial subject about Katrina was the infamously horrible governmental response, taking at least 1-2 days to help anyone.

Three years later, China was hit by the nineteenth deadliest earthquake in human history; the Wenchuan Earthquake. Before Katrina received any help, there was a myriad of ‘on-site’ reporters covering the story. Likewise, Wenchuan had even more passionate coverage, but not from representatives of some major news conglomerations; homes that had Internet connection sent the world’s largest assembly of independent journalists of all time.

The Webster definition of a Journalist is, “[the] conductor of a public journal, or one whose business it to write for a public journal”, and in this case, Twitter.com was their public journal. Robert Scoble, one of the most popular users on Twitter.com has an excess of 38,000 followers; each of those followers would then be sent any updates he posts. Not only is he popular, he is well respected, he is a well written man with followers that expand more than just a fan base.

It was through his Twitter account that he pointed to posts made by first hand survivors, on the site of the Wenchuan Earthquake. A writer online does not need worry about what people think, at not least in the sense of a professional Journalist abiding by their conglomerates ethical guidelines. Save for specialized distributions, local journalism stays local and is read thusly. Not only would the on-site independent reporters not have nearly as convenient a means for informing the masses, the information, were it ever published, would never be nearly as up to date. The Internet has created a low bandwidth form of live media accessible by anyone around the world.

In the 1940s the radio was the main form of entertainment inside a North American family home, it was during then that classics like War of the Worlds captivated (and frightened) audiences. When the late 1950s came to be, so did the television, and as that replaced the radio for its family entertainment hub, the radio had to evolve as well.

Historically, and even during the late 2000s, television is an incredibly non-interactive media. People watch news, they watch the weather expectations and they watch and read American history be made democratically. But that is all there has been, it is a one-way media, even a live video is delayed by a few seconds or so. Even newspaper, which was later denoted by radio as the sole information resource, is in itself, an entirely one-way media; it is a collection of text, printed en masse, on usually recyclable material, it does not talk back in any way other than providing a reader padding for a wet bench.

Barack Obama, the current President-elect of the United States of America, used the Internet to bridge the gap between printed (both on paper and tape, digital or non) and the reader itself. Although it is almost certain he had representatives Tweeting on his behalf, it gave voters and fans, even internationally, increased interaction. It was through this interaction that Obama grew an enormous following among the younger generations – those who had grown up online.

Barack Obama was, however, far from the first public outlet to approach the masses through this technology, but not much earlier than newspapers such as The Province and its comment page, where articles getting more attention are given more time on the website. The website Digg.com, headed by the now internationally praised Kevin Rose, is what is called, and started the trend of, socially contributed news aggregation websites. A trend adopted by the likes of Yahoo and AOL/ Time Warner, where users would ‘digg’ submitted news stories, the stories with the most ‘diggs’ would be given front-page exposure.

In no way could the website be heralded towards the apparent murder of print media, but instead this idea has been applied to print media as well. The aforementioned Twitter is thought of as the original micro-blogging applications; a service for users to update their status with 140 characters or less. This was originally an incredibly niche market, targeted towards the more nihilistic groups. But as the way with any new technology, it evolved. Behind print media are writers, so traditionally, the mission for independents has been to find a publisher; the audience would follow.

That has been reversed, where the publisher (sites like WordPress, Blogger, Vox, etc) blogs are one of the most commonly found and abandoned form of website on the Internet. Twitter and services alike were pushed to their respective ends, finding every which way this service could be of use, and in regards to independent writers, has become a very critical form of advertisement. Neha Tiwari has worked for companies like CNET, Revision3 and was an employed blogger for News.com, Crave and Webware. During an interview, she commented on, as a both a professional and personal blogger, the importance of this form of interaction;

As far as using connections to get read, I never really did that. I have some people on my blogroll, and know I am on some of my friends’ blogrolls, but that’s it. I also promote my blog via Twitter, Pownce, and Facebook, which I think help people find their way to my site.

The Internet has magnified the importance of actual quality reporting, and not just the funding behind it, it may be hard to get noticed, but even blogs on free servers can become an international hit.

Newspaper has been, and will forever be, profit based. The main reason that publishers strive for superior journalists and more original ideas, stories and points of view is to attract the eye of the reader to their paper, as opposed to that of the competitor. Newspapers like Vancouver’s 24hours and Metro are the two leading daily newspapers, and although they do carry a more personal feeling to them, their audience is, especially in Vancouver, very broad and bring with them very different opinions.

With opinions come confliction between parties and unrest amongst the media, and that is why, save for the few, self-warning opinionated columns, the entire paper must follow a generally objective point of view. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does explicitly say that a Canadian is “[guaranteed] the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrable justified in a free and demographic society,” thus giving someone the “right and freedoms” to express whatever they wish to, as long as it is “within reasonable limits [of the law]”. Blogging has allowed an entirely self-monitored system of self-opinionated prose.

With technology and the Internet, the entire concept of a community has been re-aligned, no longer a victim to a ‘space bias’ wherein a certain town had more access to news than the other (with a few exceptions). Community now is less a collaboration of those living in close proximity, but has evolved into a truer sense of like minded people. As do people of a specific country tend to commune similarly, the Internet has allowed people of a specific interest to commune likewise. It does seem fitting that, generally speaking, as the Internet is a very non-tactile idea, so are the passions most online communities are based on.

Up until, but still very much the case still, the Internet was controlled, as is any computer, but a collection of key presses. These keys all represent and output appropriate letters on the screen, as are the basics of any language. Over the years there has been a plentiful array of different marketing techniques, some assumes the message clear and some asking for more attention. The latest and longest lasting technique uses information it has acquired (in most cases) to more effectively advertise towards its target. The blog was originally a way to communicate online in a form that would not be extremely bandwidth intensive. That has worked and it has worked well, but in the wake of the decreasing cost of bandwidth, video content came back to the media.

One of the most effective and sometimes nostalgic forms of independent journalism is the Podcast. Nostalgic in the sense that talk radio is back, independent in the sense that anyone with a half-decent computer, or at least access one, can make their own news casts, radio shows, talk radio shows, virtually anything. Instead of new media replacing that of the old, we are experiencing a specialization of documentation. Freedom has been well known as a creative necessity, and with a new outflow of information the Internet is enticing and exciting a new generation with the original, non-capitalistic approach to an age-old idea.

So no, I digress. For years there have been pointless claims of the obliteration of formal journalism with the cracking open of the apparently infinite chasms of the blogosphere. In closing, Neha Tiwari said it very well;

I think there is a constant struggle between the “amateur blogger” and the “graduated from J-school at Columbia writer.” In a strange way, I think the relationship can be symbiotic–both tell a [different] or diverse part of the same story. Even in traditional media, there [have] always been pundits or experts in the field; this goes back to the ideas hatched by Adorno at Frankfurt School over 50 years ago.

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