The Fifth Estate is Us
Last night, I was corresponding with Raging In Miami, who is former journalist who is now fast becoming a blogographer. He blogs his pics at the DU, usually starting with the Photography interest group, but more and more of us are encouraging him to post them on the General Discussion as they are more like photo-journalist pics, covering rallies in Miami and NYC. I posted his pics of JRE from the Justice for Janitors rally a couple of weeks ago.
He captures the moments beautifully. I happen to know his gender because of our correspondence.
Iddybud posted an interesting piece from Editor & Publisher in which a journalism professor, Bill Israel, was concerned that journalists needed to heed their duties more seriously and carefully. Professor Israel was a colleague and friend of Karl Rove when he worked at UT-Austin. Rove often talked to classes while at UT-Austin to discuss political image creation.
Israel expresses concern this way: "The question for journalists, citizens and those of us who care about him and/or the country is not if Karl will be indicted, or when -- but why we’re in this mess."
I talk to so many who keep saying they don't hear or see any of the things I tell them, whether it be that some soldiers in Iraq have called their moms, asking for extra tuna because otherwise, they have to beg for food, or Stephen Colbert's WH Correspondence being dissed by the MSM, but lauded by those of us on the blogs. These are those who only read the MSM, and they don't know about us. I'm convinced the blogsophere is the 5th Estate and we are the only check on the 3 branches as the 4th Estate has failed us on getting the real news out there.
RIM and our blogs are checking on the 4th Estate as much as the other branches. RIM's photos linked here, are covering the ground that those in the 4th Estate are dismissing in terms of what citizens are doing. I'm thankful that the Huffington Post, the real news blog that acts like a newspaper, is in a way, protesting and expressing concerns and warnings to journalists this message: cover more, and figure out why you think we are in this mess.
Whether you agree with RIM's citizen-photojournalist's views, I was so impressed that with the photos that I felt I was at both protests without having to be there personally. I didn't miss the official news reports one bit.
This, my friends, is true virtual reality, and not the stuff you see in gaming technologies, nor an tv event staged for AC Nielsen ratings.
He captures the moments beautifully. I happen to know his gender because of our correspondence.
Iddybud posted an interesting piece from Editor & Publisher in which a journalism professor, Bill Israel, was concerned that journalists needed to heed their duties more seriously and carefully. Professor Israel was a colleague and friend of Karl Rove when he worked at UT-Austin. Rove often talked to classes while at UT-Austin to discuss political image creation.
Israel expresses concern this way: "The question for journalists, citizens and those of us who care about him and/or the country is not if Karl will be indicted, or when -- but why we’re in this mess."
I talk to so many who keep saying they don't hear or see any of the things I tell them, whether it be that some soldiers in Iraq have called their moms, asking for extra tuna because otherwise, they have to beg for food, or Stephen Colbert's WH Correspondence being dissed by the MSM, but lauded by those of us on the blogs. These are those who only read the MSM, and they don't know about us. I'm convinced the blogsophere is the 5th Estate and we are the only check on the 3 branches as the 4th Estate has failed us on getting the real news out there.
RIM and our blogs are checking on the 4th Estate as much as the other branches. RIM's photos linked here, are covering the ground that those in the 4th Estate are dismissing in terms of what citizens are doing. I'm thankful that the Huffington Post, the real news blog that acts like a newspaper, is in a way, protesting and expressing concerns and warnings to journalists this message: cover more, and figure out why you think we are in this mess.
Whether you agree with RIM's citizen-photojournalist's views, I was so impressed that with the photos that I felt I was at both protests without having to be there personally. I didn't miss the official news reports one bit.
This, my friends, is true virtual reality, and not the stuff you see in gaming technologies, nor an tv event staged for AC Nielsen ratings.
posted by benny06 at
Monday, May 08, 2006
1 Comments:
good point Benny.
It's amazing how much I've changed the way I get information over the last ten years. It's not just the blogs. there are things like wikipedia (not always perfect) and actually just plain old governmental sources that are online and very much available for reading, fact checking, etc.
You want to know about the war, just read the Defense Department's own reports. While they have to be optimistic, they often also have to be somewhat factual and the picture that emerges is quite scary.
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Chancelucky, at 9:43 AM
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