A lot has been written about the internet: how it’s changed the way we get our news, what it can do for a business, and whether or not we’re addicted to it. But there are some things that have been long forgotten in the rush to make blogs mainstream. Ethiopian news youtube is a lot like a blog, but it’s in the Ethiopian language and has no ads. It also has a million people watching it, which most blogs and news websites can’t claim.
This post is going to highlight seven common myths about news blogs and why they’re just not true.
1. The internet is killing print journalism.
This one has always been a bit of a straw man. Professionals in news are arguing that the internet is doing damage to their industry, and I think you can see what they’re saying. Newspapers are going bankrupt and the front pages of newspapers aren’t selling as many copies. Local papers are even closing down their retail outlets.
The internet is getting these papers out of business, but it’s not because they’re getting replaced by blogs or news websites. It’s because people aren’t buying newspapers or magazines anymore. People read different things online than they do in print, but they’re still reading them.
2. News blogs are going to replace newspapers.
The internet is used by a lot of people, and they’re doing a lot of things with it. They’re watching movies, playing games, talking to friends and family, shopping, learning new things, and reading the news. No one is announcing the death of newspapers or magazines in favor of news blogs.
Newspapers are still selling well in print form and a lot of people are spending money on them online. But the internet is also going to change how news is delivered. We might see more video or audio online than we do in print form in the future. We might see a lot more people getting news from social media or reading blogs.
3. News blogs are not credible sources of information.
This one has always been a favorite of newspapers in their quest to destroy the internet and its news blogs. They say that bloggers aren’t professional journalists, so you can’t trust them. This holds about as much water as that old argument about whether or not journalists have opinions. There is a difference between what news bloggers say and what newspaper reporters say, but it’s mostly in how they package it. A lot of people don’t trust the newspapers, so they’re going to get their information from sources that they can trust better.
4. Journalism is dying, and news blogs don’t help.
Obviously this one is completely false. Just like newspapers are not dying, news blogs are not going away either. The internet is the place where people get the news they want. It’s filled with sources that offer information and opinions to fit anyone’s needs. Newspapers still sell lots of copies, but now they’re doing it online as well as in print form. A lot of people will continue to read newspapers in print form because that’s how they were raised, but some people prefer the way information is delivered online now just like they’ve always done with television and radio before them.
5. News bloggers shouldn’t be fact checking their sources.
There are some people who say that news bloggers shouldn’t check their sources and trust them to be telling the truth. They’re in favor of letting everyone have their own version of the news and hope that readers will make up their own minds about it. Some publications, like The Onion, use this method by putting out fake news stories, but it doesn’t work if you’re going to do it on a regular basis. Readers end up confused by all of the different versions of an event and don’t know what is true.
6. News bloggers aren’t journalists.
Sometimes people will say that news bloggers aren’t journalists or that they’re not real news. That all depends on how you define journalism and what you’re talking about. If it’s all about the content, then a lot of blogs are going to be considered journalism, especially political blogs. But if it’s about the way information is gathered, then only a few bloggers can be considered journalists. Whatever it is, bloggers are still finding their place in the world and learning how to best be good at it.
7. News blogs kill off quality information by only giving us what we want to hear.
This one is directly related to the previous one. People are going to have a bias toward stories that further their own agendas, so if people just get what they want to hear, it’s only going to make them more so. The problem is that people aren’t just getting only what they want to hear. They’re getting information from different places, and a lot of times the news doesn’t agree with them.
