In his Dec. 5 U.S. News & World Report column, Mort Zuckerman proclaims that blogs have become the “fifth estate.” In doing so, he at once elevates blogs while separating them from traditional media, known as the “fourth estate.”
Zuckerman writes:
Given the fact that the disseminators of blogs, such as Google, have a unique protection from legal liability for what is posted, the blogs often resort to blood sport in their commentaries on politics and life, with many repeating and reporting without fact checking. (Alas, the idea that Jews plotted the 9/11 attacks began as a blog and took hold in the Muslim world as fact; in fact, it was a lie put out by Hezbollah.)
This new age of journalism is challenging the “trustee model” of journalism, where journalistic professionals served as gatekeepers, filtering the defamatory and the false. Today, a large segment of the public believes the new media are flavoring their reporting so as to tell us not so much how the world works but how the media believe it ought to work. No wonder only 44 percent of the public now say they are very, or fairly, confident of the media’s accuracy.
The blogs, while fragmenting our mass audience and carrying many more inaccuracies than mainstream media, have nonetheless democratized journalism by giving citizens daily and immediate access to different opinions and, sometimes, to purveyors of truly expert knowledge…
The opinion blogs have, in effect, become a “fifth estate,” a barometer of attitudes not just in the United States but in the world. Now, we must learn how to make the most of a flow of fact and opinion unimaginable just a decade ago.
Interesting. Two comments:
1. Blogs are a supplement to, not separate from, the fourth estate; efforts by professional journalists like Zuckerman to keep the two from merging in the public’s mind will inevitably fail.
2. I had always associated the term “fifth estate” with the poor and working classes — which bloggers definitely do not represent.
(Via Romenesko)
Technorati tags: Journalism, Zuckerman, Blogs, Media
Tags: blogs, dallas content marketing, dallas pr, dallas public relations
Steve,
Thanks for this post. It’s interesting to note some of the trends Zuckerman notes in his column (decreasing public confidence in the media, etc.) and then compare them to the on-going debate to attempt to set some standards for PR blogging. The two are, I think, inter-related.
I’ve decided to add this post to my list of “must reads” for Tuesday’s (11/28) “Much Ado About Marketing” blog.
Thanks again for this,
Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station
Mike:
I’ll be sure to send my compliments to Steve…
Scott
Very few people, even in the blogosphere know the history of the blog, which began as a simple link log, with almost no editorial or blogger commentary.
What’s Next page of Tim Berners-Lee, etc.
Blogosphere 3.0 began with Blogger and other platforms and tools that put web content into the hands of users, customers, individuals.
The MSM-corpo-religio-politico info hegemony was now over. The blog revolution had begun.
Blog = universalization of web content as published by tech and, now, even non-tech individuals.
Blog = two-way conversation based on trust, empathy, sincerity, authenticity, credibility, passion.