What’s the future for bloggers

Are bloggers the future of news coverage in Thurston County?

Many, if not most of them are single issue or purpose driven.  They’re not interested in the big picture.

Almost none of them have any journalism experience and most of them have no one to edit their copy.

Most of them don’t have time to attend government meetings or report on significant events in Thurston County.

They often end up being nothing more than critics – – or in the reverse – – a cheerleader for particular points of view.

I estimate that there may be as many as 30 local bloggers and I doubt that more than a handful have any journalistic experience.

Many experts think that within the next decade, newspapers will be printed only on the weekends and will deliver the news via the electronic media.   The Olympian is fast moving that way and is charging us for electronic access whether we use it or not.

With the decline in news coverage by our local paper we’ve already begun to see how local government is enjoying the lack of scrutiny.  Officials no longer have to worry about justifying their decisions or even gathering public opinion in making those decisions.

Left alone, without the oversight provided by newspapers, government will soon revert to its old ways of doing business in private.

Who’s going to be the next generation of muckrakers?   Will it be bloggers with no compunction about twisting the facts – – or will it be educated journalists, using the electronic media to distribute the “hard” news.

The future’s yet to be written.