At a Melbourne Writers’ Festival event in 2008, I asked Guardian journalist Nick Davies whether he thought there was a realistic hope in citizen journalists holding the fourth estate to the account on behalf of the people. His adamant ‘no’ was informed by a range of dubiously substantiated opinion.
He said that readers of the media do not trust the quality of citizen journalism, because citizen journalists rely on the same sources of information that fourth-estate journalists do – namely, ‘the wire’ and the public relations departments of governments, corporations and churches – and this is because citizen journalists can’t afford to carry out the sort of investigative research required to establish legitimately critical and informed articles.
Well, readers of the media are losing trust in the fourth estate for all the same reasons, so it was reasonable for him to assert that the best answer was to restructure the media industry to redirect funds away from advertising and into investigative journalism.
However, it must be remembered that people like Nick Davies, though most likely honourable in their intentions, are susceptible to the sort of subconscious bias that would ballast their assumptions against reason. They have a vested interest in arguing down this line, because if citizen journalism takes off, they could be out of a job if they don’t go and start up their own blogs.
It seems obvious to me now, but as I carry out this project I must be sure to take career journalists’ opinions on the blogosphere with a grain of salt.
And the exchange reinforced the following ideas for me:
- citizen journalists need to find their own sources of information, instead of relying on this thing called ‘the wire’ and other public relations mechanisms;
- the question of the blogosphere’s function in the fifth estate – whether it aims form a whole new estate, //holding the fourth estate to the account on behalf of the people//, or whether it is an element of the fifth estate sent to complement the fourth estate, tweak it here and there until it comes good, or good enough
- credibility and reliability attacks leveled against citizen journalism need to consider the state of traditional journalism
Filed under: career journalists, commentary, dubious mainstream arguments, ideas, naivety, skepticism | 1 Comment
Tags: Bloggers' Manifesto, career journalists, dubious mainstream arguments, estate function, information sources, naivety, Nick Davies, skepticism
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