JOMC 191.3 Blogging, We the Media and Virtual Communities

We have discussed the way newspapers and other forms of mass media are using bloggers as sources in stories. As a class, we acknowleged the potential lack of credibility when citing blogs. I recently encountered more potential problems with blogs and the media. While covering an event last week I met a blogger. I mentioned this in class, but I thought I would elaborate on the class blog.

A man came up to me and introduced himself as a John Edwards blogger. He told me he has been following Edwards around for a few years now. The other journalists were very cold to him. He tried to get information from the other reporters and from me about how we have been treated when dealing with Edwards, how we felt about events, etc. He followed us up to the press conference which I found odd, but it wasn’t a formal event, so I disregarded it. While Edwards was friendly to him, he was not very inviting to his comments.

I think, before bloggers and blogs become common place in the media, they need to become accepted and respected by those in the media and the sources they are dealing with. This is one isolated incident, so it might not have been representative of all blogging situations, but it certainly is something to consider. I’m interested to know what anyone else thinks about this situation.

I went to the fair this weekend and stopped by the News & Observer tent. It was surprisingly busy, so I didn’t get to talk to the blogger in the tent, but I did overhear an amusing conversation. We’ve talked a bit in class about the affect internet has on family dynamics. There was a family in the tent and the son, who couldn’t have been more than 10, ran up to the woman and asked if she was “the blog writer.” He proceded to tell the woman that his mom spends all her time on her blog, too, and never has time to play with him anymore. The parents just laughed, but the mother clearly was embarassed. I thought it was interesting that the 10 year old knew about blogs felt left out because of his mother’s involvement in her virtual community.