by Roberto Alvarez-Galloso

Created on: April 24, 2008   Last Updated: April 25, 2008

In an era in which the mainstream media limits coverage of important events and are biased, it is important that bloggers and citizen journalists start the struggle to obtain credentials to cover Congress. The reason is that a blogger or a citizen journalist can cover areas of Congress such as the budget committee that are rarely mentioned except with the blessing of the mainstream media. Bloggers and Citizen Journalists present an alternative that is refreshing to the dull and unobjective coverage of the mainstream media. Many people who criticize bloggers and citizen journalists forget that there may have been announcers or members of the mainstream media who got their start in pirate stations [those radio and TV Stations] that did not have a license before studying journalism.

Another reason for the need of credentials for Bloggers and Citizen Journalists to report on the activities of Congress lies in the fact that the United States of America was founded on the basis of a free press. A free press is based on the number of newspapers, radio, and television stations as well as blogs and webpages covering a certain topic. In addition to Freedom of the Press, the right of the people to be informed about the activities of Congress and other spheres of government is more the reason for bloggers and citizen journalists to receive credentials and be on an equal standing with those of the mainstream media with their multimillion dollar empire covering the activities of Congress such as the discussion of a law on immigration, the budget, health care, and even the fact that an Act of Congress will mandate the replacement of analogue transmission with digital transmissions.

It is for this reason and much more that we should have equal opportunities for bloggers and citizen journalists. For those who want to say that actually bloggers and citizen journalists are just cluttering space, my response [as a blogger and a citizen journalist] is that free press and free speech means facing the competition. This is something that the mainstream media did not face until the advent of the digital age.

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