The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Blogs: the new journalism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 25, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Blogs: the new journalism

Staff Reporter

Open up new ways of communication

CHENNAI: Groups of ordinary people writing the news without editorial intervention is an idea whose time has come.

Students, parents and experts discussed how the `new media' on the Internet is enabling this citizen journalism at Stella Maris College here on Monday.

The discussion, titled `The Power of Social Media via blogs,' explored the differences between citizen journalism and traditional media.

"The Internet is definitely having an impact on traditional media. My father for instance reads the paper online," said Divya Ramamurthy, student of the Sociology Department, which organised the talk.

Discussions also opened up the possibilities of raising social awareness through the Internet. How people quickly reported, networked and established rapport following the Mumbai blasts and the tsunami were examples, said Upasika Maithreya, student.

Web logs or blogs, which contain varied information from individuals, provide for online interaction with friends and people with similar interests. Online networks of friends hosted by sites like Orkut are also social blogs and open up several new ways of communication, Ms. Divya said.

While new media was revolutionising the telling of news through discussions, forums and the power to report without constraints of editorial discretion, the Indian government courted controversy recently by blocking certain blogs.

Kartik Kannan of Sulekha.com, said that the government had the power to take certain measures in the interest of national security.

However, the problem was that attempts to block specific blogs had resulted in entire sites hosting blogs being blocked.

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