Citizen Journalism provides a clearer view of the world

I have seen blogs and journalism, popular with a certain skepticism and that included my efforts. User-generated content can lead to successful results and lose, and some results may cringe inducing reactions. My blog has been set up to four months before he put pen to paper or fingers to keys.

There have been two cases recently where I had to rethink a great citizen journalism. The first was a series of comments left on an article I submitted to Newsvine. The discussion centered around the war in Iraq and the issue was whether the American public were really aware of what the rest of the world thought when the U.S. entered Iraq.

The comment left by a reader of the story was that the press had largely covered the American side, and that the opinions and viewpoints of the rest of the world had not been reported in the popular press in the United States. Incidentally, I must say that I always had my suspicions about how journalists embedded in the neutral position to give. Their lives depended on troops that were with. I would not say anything against the team that I was protecting.

The reader felt that even now the press was rather one-sided in presenting the U.S. position as stronger than for the views of Iraqis. Of course it's far too dangerous to be in Iraq live report. He felt that it was just reading through the blogs, especially those written by people from outside the United States, which he felt had been exposed to a more balanced presentation of facts.

The second instance was a report in The Independent that he discussed the boom of blogs gives Africans a voice on the web. There are a number of countries in Africa, where newspapers and television stations are rays of government bodies. There is no neutral reporting happening in these countries. An example that comes to mind is Zimbabwe.

These African voices, are providing a truer reflection of the political and humanitarian situations in their countries with respect to the partial print. It allows a more critical analysis to be heard around the world and, of course, in their countries and continents. A network of blogs or forum worth reading called Africanpath. The articles reflect the opinion well informed and corrected by bloggers and some media representatives.

According to the article in The Independent, in some parts of Africa, like Ethiopia, bloggers have provided a flow of more detailed and accurate information especially regarding the recent processes of more than 100 opposition leaders and activists. Blogs are not available for consumption by Ethiopians, like blocks of government criticism. But at least the rest of the world has a better idea of ​​what is happening.

Accurate reporting from Darfur has been done by bloggers rather than journalists. Particularly noteworthy is the blog written by a South African infantry major during his 12 months peace keeping stint. His blog is an amazing read, do yourself a favor and visit rsasoldier.blogspot.com.

Voices from Africa to speak openly about their experiences in their countries. They speak with passion excellent communication skills. Refreshing to hear what is really happening and how people cope with living in difficult conditions. It opens a new view for the rest of the citizens of the world, countries where the press was gagged or gag patriotically same .......