Is Blogging Altering The Way We Read News?

News, as defined by askOxford.com: “newly received or noteworthy information about recent events”

According to Bill Thompson, technology reporter for BBC news online:
“Today’s internet presents information in bite-sized chunks, linked into a rich tapestry where the connections often carry as much meaning as the words themselves”
Bill Thompson (2008) Changing the way we think [Online] Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7459182.stm [Accessed: 15 October 2009]

Blogging is a relatively new development but has been adopted swiftly. The emmergence of Microblogging has increased the speed of information but also our demand for News as it happens – quicker than can be assembled and distributed by traditional News gathering methods. Our requirement is to know what is happening write now – John Battelle refers to this new phenomena as “Super Fresh” Web – linking through both Microblogging and Social Networks to stories and matters of interest.
John Battelle (2009) Super Fresh [Online] Available from: http://battellemedia.com/archives/004932.php [Accessed: 15 October 2009]


Image from: http://stevenberlinjohnson.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8345166f269e2011570c07569970b-popup

According to Steven Johnson, writing for Time Magazine: “Increasingly, the stories that come across our radar … will arrive via the passed links of the people we follow [on Twitter]. Instead of being built by some kind of artificially intelligent software algorithm, a customized newspaper will be compiled from all the articles being read that morning by your social network. “
Steven Johnson (2009) How Twitter Will Change The Way We Live [Online] Originally published in Time magazine 5 June 2009 Available from: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html [Accessed 15 October 2009]

Could we then, however, be accused of not keeping ourselves informed of newsworthy events and rather allowing ourselves to be directed to the stories our peers present to us via Blogging and Social Networking? This also poses the question: could Blogging fuel a story? Could Blogging create the story?

Steven Johnson points to this development
“As the tools have multiplied, we're discovering extraordinary new things to do with them. Last month an anticommunist uprising in Moldova was organized via Twitter. Twitter has become so widely used among political activists in China that the government recently blocked access to it, in an attempt to censor discussion of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. A service called SickCity scans the Twitter feeds from multiple urban areas, tracking references to flu and fever.”

Does the power to alter the way News is both created and delivered through Blogging and Microblogging give it a deserved place in this medium? Jay Rosen referred to Citizen Journalism as “the people formerly known as the audience”. In a direct response to this, he received an open letter on his Blog: “The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictable. You should welcome that, media people. But whether you do or not we want you to know we’re here.”
(2006) The People Formerly Known as the Audience [Online] Available from: http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html [Accessed 15 October 2009]

Could these developments be enhancing the News “experience”? Writing in: We Media How Audiences Are Shaping The Future Of News And Information, Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis believe that these activities should be embraced: “Reporters and editors will need to be empow­ered to grow communities of interest online. As the value of their communities grows so will it enhance the value of the media organization.”
Bowman, S & Willis, C (2003) ‘We Media: How Audiences Are Shaping The Future Of News And Information’ The American Press Institute [Online] 60 Available from: http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/download/we_media.pdf [Accessed 15 October 2009]

Are we now so wired to accept new technological advancements that Blogging as a phenomenon will be surpassed by the next big thing, or perhaps one day will we tire of seeking out News and choose again to have it delivered to us by traditional media?