Blogs undermine journalism

Clear Red Water has an interesting post entitled the Cult of the Amateur, which is a comment on the book The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture by Andrew Keen. I haven't read the book, so this response is to Clear Red Water's post only.

The argument made by CRW and Keen is that amateur blogs undermine the rules and constraints of professional journalism, by allowing all and sundry to comment without being "subject to ... professional, academic or peer reviewing".

"Blogs have become so dizzyingly infinite that they have undermined our sense of what is true and false, what is real or imaginary. These days, kids can't tell the difference between credible news by objective professional journalists and what they read on joeshmoe.blogspot.com"

My blogs aren't amateur journalism. Anybody visiting my blogs for objective journalism, considered analysis or fair insight is going to be bitterly disappointed. My blogs are just a note of my personal thought, they have no authority other than "this is what Alwyn thinks". The posts are not objective they are my biased, partisan, often bad tempered, some times drunken, arguments about the issues of the day.

My blogs are the electronic equivalent of what I might say if I was having a political discussion with my mates down the pub. The only similarity between this blog and journalism is a similarity to the letters to the editor's page or the radio phone in programme. As long as those reading and, most importantly, those writing personal political blogs are aware of their nature then they should not "undermine our sense of what is true and false, what is real or imaginary".

If writers and readers are aware of the nature of amateur blogs then I believe that blogs add to the political process and actually enhance, rather than distract from, political journalism and professional political comment. That they do contribute to the democratic process.

Objective political journalism and the views of political leaders are worthless in a vacuum. Ordinary people discussing the views of political commentators and leaders are what gives those views value.

Democratic change happens when the views of political commentators and opinion formers influence ordinary people, that influence can only happen when the people discuss the issues raised. Amateur blogs can play an important part in contributing to that discussion, as long as readers are aware that the contribution to the discussion made by a miserable old fart on a blog such as this has the same value as the contribution made by a miserable old fart over a half of mild and a game of dominoes in the Dog and Duck