Bloggers

How did everyone find this weeks readings? i hated the first one and really liked the second one so im not even going to touch on O Baoill's article. First of before this whole coms paper i had never really experienced the 'blogosphere', as ive said in previous posts me and the net have never had much of a connection. After reading Johnson and Kaye's article it got me thinking about the whole blogs challenging traditional news scenario. I personally think that blogs as a news source can be somewhat more reliable then news media. The news twists reality and only ever focuses on one side of every story. Blogs allow us to dive deeper into certain issues and get different opinions from a range of independent people rather then corporate companies. Bloggers are not constrained by professional and ethical standards so can fully speak their mind.

A not so professional blogger but one that is relevant to me is Perez Hilton. His blog Perezhilton.com is basically a more truthful gossip magazine. He posts a bunch of posts everyday about the going ons on of hollywood celebritys and isnt afraid to dish out the juiciest dirt on them. I am a self confessed gossip junkie and was a regular buyer of magazines such as NW and OK but after finding Perez im am now 100% devoted to him. The fact that perez says what he wants about celebs makes him a much better read. The magazines twist the truth and will build a wall of stories about a celeb to suit what they want to get across and more then often it seems that they couldnt be more wrong. Basically what im trying to say is media twist stories so much but bloggers have really no reason to do so, they are not afraid of the truth and prob the best thing about them is they are wayyy more up to date! An example: after Heath Ledger died, 4 days later the newest issue of NW comes out with an article on him accusing him of dating two girls at one time that was obviously printed at a time when he was still alive and kicking.

Perez hilton has now turned himself to a celebrity in his own right and his blog is now counted on for celeb news more so then what trash magazines are. So when asking if this type of blog is challenging media i think yes it most certainly is, more and more people are coming to trust this type of news more then press news.