Every day I wonder if I picked the right major (Journalism) at my current educational institution. Why? Because newspapers are getting smaller every few years and many are discontinuing for good; also because the number of bloggers have increased and are appearing to be a news source for many people.
Most bloggers write for free. Some bloggers report the same information of a regular newspaper article and add in their bias. It’s unoriginal reporting. Most of these bloggers are gaining all the traffic to their web sites when the traffic should be going to the original source of the article. Newspaper web sites need the traffic to attract advertisers so that journalists can get paid. If all the traffic is being directed towards the blog, then how will the original journalists who have done the original reporting get paid?
Let’s talk about biases. Newspapers have a code in which they are to leave out their biases so that the reporting can be fair and that readers can make their own judgements. Bloggers are breaking that code by sauteing their posts with biases. Biases can lead a person to make a wrong judgement because readers and authors have a special relationship in which they trust each other. Biases can break that trust. Perhaps biases are a good thing and can provide a standard argument to an issue.
So what do you guys think? Is journalism being killed by blogs?
