Daniel Hannan, a Member of the European Parliment (MEP) who represents southeast England, gave a speech tearing into English Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He writes on his website:
"The internet has changed politics - changed it utterly and forever. Twenty-four hours ago, I made a three-minute speech in the European Parliament, aimed at Gordon Brown. I tipped off the BBC and some of the newspaper correspondents but, unsurprisingly, they ignored me: I am, after all, simply a backbench MEP.
When I woke up this morning, my phone was clogged with texts, my email inbox with messages. Overnight, the YouTube clip of my remarks had attracted over 36,000 hits. By today, it was the most watched video in Britain."
The days when a minister gave briefings to a dozen lobby correspondents, and thereby dictated the next day's headlines, are over. Now, a thousand bloggers decide for themselves what is interesting."
Is the blogasphere a good replacement for professional journalist/reporters or just a reflection of the mainstream media not doing the job?
Will be interesting to watch the birth of a new media as the old media, especially print as we know it dies off.
Posted by: Ron | March 25, 2009 at 04:37 PM
No the blogosphere is not a good replacement, but the internet gives people lots of angles on just about every story something which has long been missing from traditional reporting.
Posted by: Diane | March 25, 2009 at 07:34 PM
How much longer (do U think) B4 we see major cities without major newspapers? Copley Press just sold the San Diego Union Tribune to non-newspaper people. I am surprised they found a buyer. It's just amazing to pick up a Sunday paper and see classifieds down to just a few pages. Help wanted ads are down to almost none; and that's not just the economy. In 2006 we stopped running help wanted in the paper - we'd spend $300+ for a weekend 5-line ad and actually got absolutely no response. Not one. Ran an ad on Craigslist (help wanted costs $25 in San Diego now) and had several response within an hour, literally dozens of qualified responses in 48 hours. With ad revenues drying up, how much longer will they have the money to do real honest-to-goodness investigative reports?
Posted by: Rand | March 25, 2009 at 08:20 PM
Mainstream media ignored this slam of socialism, but Jay Leno slams Obama in this video with the c-word (communism):
http://tinyurl.com/c4vkpq
Posted by: Genelle | March 26, 2009 at 10:10 AM