Bloggers Versus the Mainstream Media: A Study on Iraq

Journalist Rahul Kumar here shares his reflections on the way in which technology and war have influenced the media in recent times. He structures his observations about these communication trends around two Iraqi conflicts: the war that began in August 1990 and the one that began in 2003 (and is, of this writing, continuing). He notes that, "In the first war, television channels beamed direct images of the war into our bedrooms....The combination of military technology and media technology camouflaged the agony of people and the destruction of a nation. The live coverage of the war dumbed the viewers into awe. The second Iraq war again had a tremendous influence on the media. This time it spawned an era of embedded journalism....The other significant impact on the media was through dissemination of news and information through the Internet, particularly through weblogs..."

Focusing specifically on these blogs, Kumar shares several excerpts from the online diaries that illustrate the fact that this form of communication is increasingly being used - and to show how. A few of the salient points to emerge from this analysis include:

• Who is creating blogs? - "Freelance journalists, soldiers and Iraqi youth brought, in a large measure, images of war that would never have made it into the public domain. Personal comments, opinions and news that came from the people made it into the mainstream media, into books and even into an online exhibition of war photographs..."
• Who is reading blogs? - "The audience for warblogs was not confined to the netizens [those actively involved in online communities], but also spread out to other important constituencies - the mainstream media, photojournalists and even publishing houses. And this phenomenon has transcended nations and cultures. A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project - Technology and Media Use - says that by the end of 2004, 32 million Americans were blog readers. A significant finding here was that blog readers have increased manifold as compared to 2003 and in November 2004, 27 per cent of all Internet-users were blog readers. This research proves that a vital constituency - the common man - has not been left untouched by the information-providing capabilities of the Internet."
• How are blogs impacting mainstream media? -
  
  "[N]etizens are forcing the pace for journalists and the media. They are coming up with information based on facts, are giving story ideas to journalists and seem to be the first ones with the news. Their passion is even forcing big media outlets not only to keep an eye on the blogs, but also join the game." Kumar also cites a January 2004 report titled "Imagining the Internet" indicating that technology leaders and scholars believe that the news and publishing industries will undergo the most dramatic changes over the next decade because of the internet. The report says: "Cultural infrastructure will change the most. Alternative media made possible by new technologies will continue to drive change in both the producing the distributing sectors of radio TV, the recording industry and film."

For a prediction of future trends in blogging, Kumar references Mark Glaser's "Bloggers, Citizen Media and Rather's Fall - Little People Rise Up in 2004". Glaser suggests that "In 2005 social media and traditional media will continue to converge. The traditional media will adopt blog-like features, such as blogrolls, comments and trackbacks...." Despite this predicted growth, Kumar stresses that blogs are "subjective, personal and mostly amateurish", noting that "the Internet can be even one of the most misleading sources of information....In this backdrop, it seems that blogs will evolve as a medium in their own right. They are likely to complement mainstream media. They may even strengthen the mainstream media by prompting it to look inwards and work on its reporting and improve its credibility."