Capital Eyes Publishing
(the eyes of capital)
Courtney Kelsey's 'Journalism' continued:
The Note is a self-described blog that is attached to the official ABC News web site and is an interesting site to consider in a discussion about the future of conventional journalism. All three contributors to the site are university graduates with experience in journalism and are all on the pay roll of ABC News. Unfortunately no contact information is provided and all correspondence must be directly through the company itself. Updates to the log are made daily which is entirely reasonable given that this is not a personal project like Baghdad Burning. This means that the bias held by the authors lean towards the preservation of their career and reputations as professionals and will mirror the ideological stance of the individuals in charge of ABC News. It should be noted that this may lead to comments critical of the war in Iraq because as in Vietnam, the dominant powers are loosing the optimism that they once held. Noam Chomsky�s propaganda model of the media dictates that the opinions of journalists will quickly reflect this shift in opinion once it occurs. A post from the eighth of December primarily deals with the present-day political happenings in Iraq and the �futile attempt to come to a consensus on a plan� for the country. Predictably, this log offers very little insight into the events and offers no analysis of the events in the greater context of history and accepts the vague assumption that we are exporting �freedom� and �democracy� to Iraq. With this aside, The Note is a fairly good reference for anyone interested in daily updates on whatever political madness arises in the United States. The streets are filled with millions of people; young ones with lap tops, wireless modems and access to web sites that freely allow them to share their opinions with people that they have never met personally. These people may be mere citizens like �Riverbend� or they may be professional journalists like those of The Note. Whether driven by compassion, economics or a deeper search for the elusive, shadowy figure that is truth, all are involved in a complex situation that is unfolding itself in front of our eyes. Web logs are most certainly a powerful tool to promote critical thought among citizens but ABC�s foray into blogs shows that they pose no immediate threat to the established order of conventional journalism. The highly de-centralized nature of the technology and the sheer number of blogs that exist are by no means appropriate for mass dissemination of information - a key ingredient to any solution for the many woes of journalism today. To mold them into such a vehicle would be folly for it would require some form of centralization - an act that would negate the reasons for its usefulness in the first place. We also can�t forget the issues surrounding the credibility of authors and potential for abuse that an open ended system of information distribution would allow. Given this it is only reasonable to conclude that there is no threat to the conventions, rather an alternative that gives those with the desire and access a means to link with other like minded individuals.
