News Blackout in Greece

GREECE – Last Thursdays, journalists in Greece went on strike for four days, and no one received any news. It wasn’t just the print journalists either; radio, television, and electronic media all stopped. Websites didn’t get updated and the country was in an “information vacuum.”

Is it a comfort to know this could never happen in our country? I used to cringe at the term ‘citizen journalist.’ It especially rubbed me the wrong way when people would tell me I am wasting my time by being in school – you don’t need a four-year education to be a journalist. This very well could be true. But I wouldn’t trade my education for anything. However, with millions of bloggers on the Internet who have no formal training, the news will never stop in this country.

Think about two of the last major setbacks in our country: hurricane Katrina and 9/11. It seemed in both these situations time stood still. Everyone was either glued to a TV or their car radio as they listened to the events unfolding. But the news wasn’t just flowing on traditional mediums. People were getting on their blogs and reaching out to people – people who before might not have considered themselves journalists. At the same time, journalists who before worked for newspapers and television were updating via blogs because they could get the news out faster and communicate with people on a new level.

The point is, even if every journalist decided to go on strike like those in Greece, thousands of citizen journalists would take their place and keep pumping the news out. In this respect, the invention of blogging has brought our country closer together.

I can rest assured that in the event of a zombie apocalypse on the East Coast, the news would be on the West Coast faster than you can say the word apocalypse. This is journalism at its best. While it is sad that such a thing could happen in Greece, it puts the way I look at news in a new perspective: the people deserve it. They deserve to know what’s going on. If journalists won’t give it to them, someone else will.

Newspapers aren’t dying because people don’t read anymore; they read more than ever. But they are more picky about what they read. People seek out the news they care about which might not be in the local newspaper. It is most likely somewhere on the Internet. Everyone is more educated these days thanks to the world wide web and as a writer this is a good thing. It means people out there care about what I am writing about. It also means accuracy is more important than ever.

Sources: bignewsnetwork.com, Greenslade Blog