Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
journalist left out in the rain
Ryanne & Jay were on Chuck Olsen recently. Julie DuRose reports:
Though mainstream media is married to the ideal of god-like objectivity, vloggers in general have abandoned the futility of this model. Vloggers believe that the objectivity claimed by mainstream media is good in theory, but impossible in practice. And that the illusion of objectivity is what is most insidious; real truth in storytelling comes when the writer overtly states his or her own biases. This sortof objectivity is prized above any elusive omnisceint “objectivity.” When the perspective of each individual is valued, everyone who wants to can have a voice; everyone can show his or her truth.
Their “illusion of objectivity” is simply the smell of intellectual safety, scrubbed clean of all traces of deviance, deep controversy, or abstract thinking. Do you really think modern journalism’s “objectivity” is more epistemologically sound than blog posts? Go through a newspaper and cross out the statements that are direct quotes or nonverifiable and see what you have remaining. Please!
Jeff Jarvis writes:
In the left column, under “news,” I found commentary from a student paper in Tennessee. In the right column, under “blog beta,” I found analysis from law professors. Which is more valuable, more authoritative, more trustworthy?