By Laura Acuff, Opinion Editor
Journalists are the watchdogs of government. They take pride in being unbiased and sometimes even count themselves as the fourth check in our government’s system of checks and balances. Usually, they’ve gone to college and studied to earn a degree and their place in the field. Their credibility is on the line with every byline.
Not so for bloggers. These new age authors can be anyone, with or without any number of qualifications. Anyone who can access the Internet can write a blog. Bloggers don’t have to be educated. They don’t have to be unbiased. They don’t even have to be accurate, yet their audiences only seem to grow.
With technology making information easier, faster and cheaper to access than ever before and newspaper readership shrinking, the journalism job market becomes ever more competitive. And bloggers don’t make those remaining jobs any easier.
We compete with bloggers for stories. We compete to break those stories online. What we don’t necessarily compete for is quality.
While some bloggers may take pains to ensure their product’s accuracy, their jobs aren’t on the line with every unchecked fact. Some might say that gives bloggers the advantage. Why would people read newspapers when free, easily accessible information is obviously more convenient and cost-efficient than even a daily publication?
Journalists generally consider themselves a cut above the average blogger primarily because they do adhere to certain levels of quality and ethics. Additionally, their watchdog function also keeps them to higher standards. As a journalist myself, I have to believe these are important functions.
But with our field on a constant crusade to keep others accountable, who’s watching the watchdogs?
That’s where the bloggers really shine. Despite their inherent disregard for objectivity and potential inaccuracy, bloggers force newspapers to compete on a new level.
Because of bloggers and other online news sources, newspapers now race to post articles online. Journalists work harder to get the scoop before a story hits the Internet. We have to be even more accurate, competing with parties who don’t.
Besides just being a good distinction to uphold between bloggers and journalists, accuracy has become even more critical as bloggers actually begin to police newspapers.
For instance, a couple years ago, a blog called Little Green Footballs drew attention to photos of the Iraq War published by Reuters, U.S. News & World Report and even the New York Times Web site. Some of the photos were clearly staged, showing an individual dead among rubble in one frame and helping to clear the mess in the next. Others were obviously “Photoshopped.”
When we put ourselves on a pedestal, as the final balance against government distortion, we make ourselves even more prone to corruption. A final check can never exist in a truly accountable system. Accountability must run both ways.
Rather than viewing bloggers as a nuisance, just one more inaccurate source to correct, journalists should see them for what they are: entertainers capitalizing on the right of free speech, as we all should. Most don’t try to be journalists. But whether or not they have journalistic aspirations, bloggers generally either deepen the need for honest reporting or reveal dishonest work.
Journalists sometimes complain bloggers use the Internet platform to advertise ignorant, baseless views, but in reality, they’re simply exercising their right to free speech. Newspapers have opinions pages to express their viewpoints. Bloggers have the entire Internet. It’s their prerogative to post what they want. Journalists need to accept the challenge, do their jobs well and quit griping.
In the famous words of Porky Pig, “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” And do it better.
