The blogging phenomenon

First it was MSN, then MYSPACE and Facebook taking social networking by storm but the newest craze would have to be blogging. The internet has grown at such a rapid place and opened so many new and exciting doors for the world as we know it. You no longer have to spend years at university attaining qualifications and experience to voice your opinions in the media and world; now its as simple as logging onto a computer. Sites such as Blogger.com have created a new forum for free speech, and the only prerequisite needed in this forum is a email address and password. Blogs have reconstructed the media and news intell as we know it. Take the war in Iraq as an example. Normally we would have to wait for journalists to research and gather information, write up their findings and have their editor check it before it could be braodcast to us as a community. But thanks to blogs the news comes quicker and easier than ever before. Civillians from inside Iraq and sorrounding Countries were logging onto their computers and posting photographs and messages from inside the war zome. Never have we seen such raw media coverage, including candid videos posted on sites such as Youtube. But how far is to far? Although this new form of media gives everyone equal opportunity to voice their opinions, who is checking the facts and varifying the truth? The easier free speech becomes on the net the liklier it is that someone might get their facts wrong and end up offending others. Also with free publication comes the issue of appropriateness. Which photos and images and experiences are too controversial or too confronting for those who are not use to them. We have to remember that children of all ages have access to the internet these days, hence a sense of responsibility and censorship is required for exactly what should be published.