Should bloggers and citizen journalists have an opportunity to get credentials so they can cover Congress the same way mainstream media journalists do?

Yes

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by Leigh Goessl

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If bloggers and citizen journalists were given the opportunity to cover Congress, this might bring back some of the conventional coverage from days past and add some competition to the arena. Competition typically breeds quality.

The media has become predictable, biased and is not as dynamic as it used to be. Sensationalism, on some level, has replaced traditional reporting as the name of the game. Unfortunately this colors news reports with an undeniable slant. Viewers who tune in have a pretty good idea of what kinds of opinionated leaning they'll be watching.

Journalism, like most other businesses, has had to contend with the expansion of the Internet, and like other industries, technology has significantly impacted communications. Times are changing and technology is continuously evolving. As a result more people have the opportunity to share their writing skills and thoughts on different subjects. Many of them are quite talented and can be found hanging on in the various corners of the Internet doing what they do best, write.

Whether or not bloggers and citizen journalists should be able to obtain credentials is an interesting question. It seems some sort of training and education is in order, but bloggers and citizen journalists should be allowed to have the chance to obtain these credentials to cover Congressional activities. It wouldn't be difficult to establish a system where individuals interested in breaking into this field could be given the opportunity to prove their capabilities.

Since a good chunk of what's shown on the news is so slanted and biased anyway, it would be a great idea to see some fresh reporting from a new perspective thrown into the mix. Politics and reporting of political activities has become so routine; a fresh eye might be able to put what they see from pen to paper and provide the public with a fair and balanced perspective of what's really going on in the U.S. government.

Mainstream media has made it difficult to wade through the various reports, opinions, misrepresentations and fallacies to find unbiased truth. Adding some new journalism members to the pool of reporters may do the public a valuable service. It is not like the media is providing opinion-free reporting nowadays anyway, so why shouldn't individuals who are not inherently linked to a network be denied the opportunity to report on these very important issues?

True and conventional journalism has evolved significantly and while there has always been some level of bias, today most of it is opinionated and slanted; political coverage no longer provides just the facts. This is to state just anyone and everyone should start reporting, obviously the blogger or citizen journalist would have had to do some proving of oneself to illustrate they are professional, ethical and able to accurately report and write effectively, but they should definitely be given that opportunity to earn that creditability.

Individuals who are freelancing and reporting on Congressional activities won't be worried about offending advertisers or keeping their job security if they were to go against their network's political stances. Citizen journalists should be given the chance to give to the public a new perspective on what's going on in politics today.

It is clear the mainstream media isn't responsibly doing the job by sharing both sides of a situation accurately. As an interested reader, I'd support letting someone else having a chance to get the job done and report accurate and unbiased words when sharing what's going on in Congress.

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