In the relatively new world of online media, the most dramatic and influential change in information exchange is the ability of individuals to have a voice. I would agree with Cullen, who asserts in her blog, “War 2.0“, that “effective citizen journalism” is the way of the future.
Perhaps the most novel concept in news journalism is personality. Often, news programs express the public with a single word: “Americans.” They label the citizens of another country by their nationality. In my opinion, though practical, the practice of generalizing results in a response which is detached and unemotional. We often forget that when a headline reads “Fires in Southern California,” someone lost a brother in that fire. Or, as another example, “Microsoft Stock Plummets,” implies that a hardworking man might have lost his job that day.
The writer of the entry says: “… I had seen blogging as a pitching platform with bias, not as a story-telling platform.” She goes on to explain that reading a blog by a “citizen journalist” invoked “feelings” and “emotions.” This was the story of a single person, a human being, that made a headline real and an article relevant.
The news is, ultimately, an explanation of what is happening in people’s lives, at home and around the world. Yet often I forget that a meeting between two world leaders is supposed to symbolize the meeting of two groups of people, invoking the image of a leviathan.
The Internet has made individuals actors in the widest arena. The Internet is itself an international institution in its own category. Sites like Youtube, Myspace, and Facebook enable communication on a personal level, reminding us what we are really hearing about when we listen to a news program.
This is especially important for the next generation. Perhaps when this generation reaches its political prime, the emphasis will be more about the person than the profit and more about the citizen than the country. Cullen concluded her post: “Who knew web 2.0 could be used during a time of war to create art.”
