HW 30 B "Blogging for all Citizens and Reporters"

Today I attended the symposium speaker “Blogging for all citizens and reporters”. There were two people that spoke today by the names of Mike Caufield and a guy that goes by the name of Jim. Caufield is a blogger in New Hampshire and also the Keene State College webmaster. Jim is the Keene Sentinel editor. Throughout this speaker they discussed blogging and journalism and what they feel these two mean to them. They discussed how blogging has a change in the attitudes of ownership and sharing of information. This can include music downloading, academic honesty, and plagiarism. They also discussed the different attitudes about politics. One quoted sentence that the man whom I didn’t get his name but he speaks throughout Keene State to students said “Young people today want to change the world. They are more interested in local politicizing than voting.” His view on blogging said that he feels that the comments made about blogs are more important than what is actually said in the blog itself. Mike Caufield was the next to speak. “The question is not are bloggers journalists, but how we create a median environment of the people. And if I were to answer this question, then I hope not.” I found this interesting because I completely agree with what he said. I feel that anyone can be a blogger. You write how you feel. Bloggers are not journalists. Caufield did his first online homepage in 1997. He wrote a sonogram of his daughter. He wanted to be a political blogger so he could educate people about Charles Bass and get him out of office. The next man Jim began to speak. He’s been a professional journalist since 1970. “Most people put more faith in what they read if there is a name attached to it.” Jim continued to argue that he likes to be presented with something that has its own facts so then he can make his own opinion.
This whole discussion today was very fascinating to me. I got to here different views on blogging and journalism and the types of people who can do it. Anyone can blog and anyone can become well known for it.