Tag Archives: chinese earthquake
Are these the biggest moments in journalism-blogging history?
Here's another one for that book I'm working on – I'm trying to think: what have been the most significant events in the history of journalism blogging?
Here's what I have so far (thanks Mark Jones and Nigel Barlow):
1998: The Drudge Report breaks the Monica Lewinsky story. While Drudge denies the site is a blog, it demonstrated how the nimbleness of an online operation could scoop the mainstream media.
2001: September 11 attacks: while news websites collapse under the global demand, a network of blogs pass on news and lists of survivors
2002: Trent Lott forced to resign after apparently pro-segregationist statements made at an event and initially ignored by mainstream media, were picked up and fleshed out by bloggers
2003: Invasion of Iraq: Salam Pax, the 'Baghdad Blogger', posts updates from the city as it is bombed, providing a particular contrast to war reporters 'embedded' with the armed forces and demonstrating the importance of non-journalist bloggers
2003: Christopher Allbritton raises $15,000 through his blog Back-to-Iraq 3.0, to send him to report independently from the war, demonstrating the ability of blogs to financially support independent journalism (called the 'tip-jar model').
2004: Rathergate/Memogate: CBS' 60 Minutes broadcast a story about George W. Bush's National Guard service, and within minutes a section of the blogosphere mobilises to discredit the documents on which it is based. Dan Rather eventually resigns as a result.
2004: Asian Tsunami: more blogs mobilise around a disaster, of particular significance for video blogging
2005: July 7 Bombings, London: mobile phone image of passengers walking along Tube tunnel posted on MoBlog (although was first sent to The Sun), and goes global from there. A significant moment in moblogging.
2006: The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service cites the blog run by the New Orleans Times Picayune during Hurricane Katrina. The flexibility of blogs during a disaster which stopped printing presses and delivery trucks was driven home (h/t Bob Stepno).
2007: Talking Points Memo blog breaks story of US attorneys being fired across the country, demonstrating the power of involving readers in an investigation, and carrying it out in public (h/t Albert in the comments).
2007: Dave Winer wins his $2,000 bet (made in 2002) that blogs will rank higher than the New York Times for the top 5 news stories of 2007 (h/t Bob Stepno), demonstrating the importance of blogging in news distribution.
2007: Myanmar protests: the clampdown that followed democratic protests in the country was seen around the world thanks to blogging, moblogging, and social networking sites. Journalists were not allowed in the country. Even after the government cut off the internet, bloggers located outside the country continued to post material. (h/t Sandra Fish in comments)
2008: Peter Hain resigns over donations revealed by UK political blogger Guido Fawkes, who in 2006 broke a story on an affair by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott which he claimed lobby correspondents were sitting on
2008: Chinese Earthquake: a key moment for microblogging, as news of the earthquake spreads on Twitter (and Chinese IM service QQ) quicker than any official channels.
2008: Collapse of Northern Rock: BBC correspondent Robert Peston breaks one of the biggest stories of the year – not on TV, but on his blog.
What have I missed? This is a horribly Anglo-American list, too, so I'd particularly welcome similar moments from other countries.
This entry was posted in online journalism, twitter and tagged 60 minutes, asian tsunami, Back to Iraq, blogging, chinese earthquake, Christopher Allbritton, citizen journalism, crowdsourcing, dave winer, drudge report, enterprise, facebook, fundraising, history, hurricane katrine, investigative journalism, july 7 bombings, memogate, moblogging, monica lewinsky, myanmar, new orleans times picayune, northern rock, peter hain, pullitzer prize, qq, quido fawkes, rathergate, robert peston, september 11, tip jar, Trent Lott, twitter on November 20, 2008 by Paul Bradshaw.
A week in online journalism: roundup
Allison White has written this wonderful roundup of last week's news for the OJB. But now she's got a job. Persuade her to do this again in the comments…
-Announced no desire to create content and will respect copyright.
It added face-blur technology to its Street View mapping serivce to protect privacy. Also speculation from Groves Media on whether this technology is more of a threat to civil liberties than CCTV.
-Looking to limit the kinds of computers that can use their low-cost OS, making them poor computers even if they could be better and still be as cheap. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in online journalism and tagged allison white, ap, cablevision, chinese earthquake, clickstream, comcast, daily mail, FBI, flickr, google, imedix, internet archive, iphone, livenewscamera.com, liverpool daily post, meme, microsoft, MSNBC, netherlands, newscred, newstrust, nimbuzz, plaxo, prweb, street view, time warnerBBC, twitterfone, wikipedia, WSJ, yahoo on May 20, 2008 by Paul Bradshaw.