Blogging: We have met Big Brother, and it is us

The Washington Post, the most mainstream of all the Mainstream Media, is once again pondering the Blogosphere and the very concept of citizen journalism (NOTE: I henceforth refuse to put quotes around the phrase). The article is generally fair, and includes some quotes from a tired old blog basher:

“The term ‘citizen journalist’ has an Orwellian ring to it,” says Andrew Keen, author of “The Cult of the Amateur,” who’s criticized the Web 2.0-Wikipedia world, where everyone can become their own editors.

“People are becoming Big Brother, either with a camcorder or a keyboard, and following the candidates around. It’s ridiculous. You can’t just be a great journalist, the same way you can’t be a great chef or a great soccer player.”

Journalists, he continues, “follow a set of standards, a code of ethics. Objectivity rules. That’s not the case with citizen journalists. Anything goes in that world.”

There’s just so much here that needs to be said:

1. Blogging and citizen journalism is Orwellian (a term that means government control the media for the purpose of controlling what people think). The Internet is mostly ungoverned by any government, and has done more to spread diverse points of view and provide access to sources of information than any other innovation since the invention of printing press.

Blogs and citizen journalism have given INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE the power of the press. And THIS is Orwellian? It is the antithesis of Orwellian.The book 1984 was about the masses being under constant monitoring by the government, which limited access to information through control of the media. Today, we have the masses putting the government and the media under scrutiny, then disseminating the information they get to anyone who wants it.

2. Bloggers with keyboards and camcorders are becoming the new Big Brother. Keen has himself performed as act of Orwellian doublespeak that would have amazed even George Orwell for its audacity.

3. Citizen journalists cannot be great journalists. Really? And just who decides who is a great journalist? Usually, the journalists themselves are happy to tell us. But in the end it is decided by news consumers. That’s why Walter Lippmann is more respected today than Walter Winchell, even though the latter enjoyed more commercial success. History will also decide which of today’s Big Cheese bloggers are more worthy of respect, ideologues like Michelle Malkin and Markos Moulitsas or some guy like Joe Gandelman. And every day across this nation, citizen journalists are doing acts of journalism that won’t appear in the journalism school textbooks. Citizen journalism as a whole has done some amazing reporting at the national level. Perhaps Keen’s arguments are self-serving, as the mainstream media itself has been the target of some of this reporting. Rathergate anyone?

And I thank reporter Jose Antonio Vargas for introducing me to Faye Anderson and Anderson@Large.

UPDATE: Thanks to Faye for the shoutout. Her commitment to citizen journalism (and the fine links on her site) has inspired me to do more with The Blog Peoria Project.