Traditional vs. New Journalism

I just finished reading the first five chapters of Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge's book Putting the Public Back in Public Relations. The subject matter pertaining to the fourth chapter really struck me as interesting. This chapter discussed how the traditional method of news-reporting in newspapers and magazines has been overshadowed by online social media.
One element that is becoming popular in the online social media scene is blogging. As this starts to rise, traditional media is decreasing. Blogs do have the upper hand on the traditional media because it typically transports faster. They do present accurate information that individuals can depend on. Information found on the web is more accelerated than any other outlet. This news is brought to people before they can even try and find it themselves. It is finding them instantly and hitting them from all directions.
The major difference between traditional journalism and blogging is that journalist adhere to a code of ethics while bloggers don’t. Bloggers aren’t held responsible for the information they post on their blog. Unless this changes, currently the guidelines for ethics are individually based and no one is in control of the blogosphere. Bloggers are now known as “citizen journalist” and I believe that it is crucial for them to comply with the same beliefs and values that journalist do in their writing. If they don’t, it is only going to hinder their credibility in the long run. Viewers won’t continue to read and rely on blogs full of inaccurate information. They will turn to other sources for their information.
One question to ponder is if the blogosphere will adhere to a code of ethics in the future, as journalists do. Only time will tell if online social media is going to replace traditional media and become the new journalism.

Twitter

I just read an article by Adam Ostrow on Mashable.com called 18 Million Twitter Users by End of 2009. At the present time, Twitter is just a fragment of the size of Facebook. However, it is estimated that Twitter will become more and more popular in the upcoming years. It declared that Twitter is believed to have around 18 million users by the end of 2009 and the latest calculation for 2010 is 26 million. This number is up 50% from the original number that eMarketer estimated for the end of 2009.

I know a lot of people who juggle both a Facebook and Twitter account. It doesn’t surprise me that they are calculating Twitter to reach high numbers. Facebook arrived on the scene first, but Twitter is catching up. The activity that is occurring on the website has heightened enormously during the past year. I think it will be interesting to see how Twitter’s popularity will compare to Facebook's in the future.

Ethics

Today in class we discussed the importance of ethics when we are conducting research. It is vital to have the participant's best interest at heart. Before undergoing any research, the individuals need to agree that they want to take part in the research. They need to clearly understand exactly what they are volunteering for and that at any given time they are free to withdraw from the research without punishment. The research that is being conducted cannot harm the participants in any form. The information, whether it be behaviors, reactions or statements, must remain confidential. If you make any promises to the individuals within the research, you must remember to follow through with them. Don't promise anything if you question that you will be able to deliver. Rather, say you're going to try to do it but can't make any promises. Honesty plays a key role throughout the process of research.