by Bruno Somerset

Created on: February 04, 2007   Last Updated: December 06, 2010

There is no doubt that the proliferation of blogs has had a tremendous impact on the news industry, and the impact has come in ways we could never have imagined. This impact has been both positive and negative as blogs have permeated every facet of news and the reporting of news. There are no major new outlets, from newpapers to television networks, that don't have some kind of blog along with their other web presence.

Political candidates running for every office from President to local mayor use blogs as a way of getting their message directly to the voters, with the added advantage that the message can be targeted to very specific demographic groups. There are blogs aimed at specific interest groups, and blogs that disagree with those same interest groups. President Obama in particular used blogs to great effect during his 2008 campaign for the Presidency.

As the media outlets in the United States have increasingly come under the control of a few large conglomerates, blogs serve to ensure that we are not only presented with one side of a story. In fact, because of the immediacy of blogs, they often take the lead in breaking stories even before the mainstream media. Blogs also give anyone with a computer and Internet access the ability to comment on current events, often in a way unimpeded by what corporate sponsors think is best for their bottom line. 

But therein lies the danger of blogs as well. Because anyone can start one, the quality of information we receive has decreased as the quantity has increased. Some blogs are nothing more than talk radio style shouting matches. Some blogs are intentionally mis-information sites. And as the big media corporations have learned the value of blogs, they have set up their own, with the money and staff to be able to move the debate in whatever direction they want. This is perhaps the single most dangerous aspect of blogs today.

Blogs have certainly given more of us a voice, and changed news reporting forever, but with the right to blog also comes great responsibility. And it appears many people don't take that responsibility seriously. We have also become a nation that only cares about the 24-hour news cycle; the in-depth reporting of the type that brought down the Nixon administration after Watergate will likely never happen again. Our attention spans simply aren't that long anymore.

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