reaction to "War of Blogs"
I've always been interested in how our personal thoughts and documentation (photographic or otherwise) can affect mainstream media. The article "Blogs of War" is a great example of this, much of the information soldiers documented would of otherwise gone perhaps unnoticed or be held in only intensely personal thoughts or memories not shared with people on the outside. With the subculture of blogging now becoming accepted by mainstream news sources as more credible, I can't help but wonder how it blurs the lines of professional and amateur journalism, and thus brings up the question, which is more accurate and why?
Its been well documented by many liberal or independent news sources that the large labels (ABC, NBC, CBS etc) are vastly controlled by the upper percentage of wealth in our nation as well as the government. Blogging for the most part eliminates most, if not all control, from corporations and government watchdogs. I can't help but wonder if the internet wasn't a part of our society at this point in time, if much of the brutality towards the Iraqi prisoners or the abuse of power of our military would simply be lost in history? What impact would situations have like this if they had not been documented by soliders or the everyday witness of the event?
The real advantage I see in the blogging society is it allows a large spectrum of experiences, from left to far right, without censorship or control over thoughts, photos, and really the availability for everyday people to change or make an impact in the world via blogging and internet could be much more vast then we realize.
Another good example of everyday people making big impacts, is groups like Witness, who are able to find and verify documented human rights issues from everyday people with cameras that otherwise would be possibly ignored. The great thing about blogging is it allows everyday people (or anyone for that matter) with access to basic technology the ability to see the world through another person's eyes on a global scale. People are no longer interdepdent on local or national news. The attacks on the WTC is a great example of this, thousands of photos we taken when the planes hit and we saw from millions of angles and people what the experience was like.