Chowrangi

Any journalism is about people or its about community. journalism is about amplifying the conversations a society (community, people) has with itself. Journalism can best be understood as amplifying or accelerating something (cognition, attitudes, and/or behaviors) that are present in the society at large.

New media like blogging and social networking has give a new dimension to the journalism. The best achievement of this new media is that it has made a common person like me a journalist, who is read by, millions of people. Ok, make it some people.

People are buzzing like bees on blogs and on the social networks. They are as excited as they could ever. They are enjoying their serendipitous discoveries. They aren’t talking anymore but screaming in glee and awe. They are talking and they are commenting. Blogs and Social Networks are what a great tool for writers (and editors) looking to connect with writers and editors they don’t yet know.

This great new brave world of new media is all about to share ideas, discuss topics collaboratively and meet new people. Sure there is lots of noise and evil thingies, but there are lots of good guys but it doesn’t mean everyone is honest and authentic - but it shouldn’t be hard to discover the fakes.

According to Mark of Facebook,”We have in large part been the ones who have socialized our audience (even the word for people who partake of our product implies a certain passivity, a certain power relation) into being talked at, or talked to but seldom talked with. This has been going on for decades. Politicians talked at/to the voters, teachers talked at/to pupils, experts talk (down) to non-experts, media talk to/at just about everyone. So now the paradigm starts to shift.”

As news organizations are learning how to use the Web more creatively and effectively, I think the question that must be answered is this: how do we bring some of the conversation going on in our communities to a place where we can use it to inform our traditional journalism?

Other posts by Commoner

• Rare Chink in FATA - August 28th, 2008
• Presidential Campaigns Pick Momentum - August 28th, 2008
• Just Brought About Change - August 27th, 2008
• Speck of Hope - August 27th, 2008
• Daggers Drawn - August 27th, 2008
• More Load Shedding - August 27th, 2008
• Whose Writ is This - August 26th, 2008
• So They Parted - August 26th, 2008
• New Alignments - August 24th, 2008
• Vindicated Operartion in Swat - August 24th, 2008