Amateur Bloggers -V- their Professional Conterparts

As we all know, any Joe Soap can start their own blog and share their opinions on news stories with the world. They can relay news stories, acting as journalists and put thier writing skills to the test. But where does the professional journalist fit into this equation?

Ken Fox, writer with the Tribune, keeps his own blog which is available on www.kenfoxe.com. The lastest blog written by Foxe entails the story and picture of Terence Wheelock who claims to have been attacked at Store Street Garda Station in Dublin. It includes graphic images of the man’s injuries, pictures which one would not expect to see in a newspaper. This blog and professional ones like it, offer working journalists the chance to write sotries and portray opinions which would otherwise not be vocalised.

This is an example of one of the photographs available on Foxe’s page and is given the caption,

“Copy of a photo of Terrence Wheelock’s right hand taken when he was still alive in the hospital.”

Foxe also looks at issues such as the Civil Service pension scheme which we would indeed expect to be covered in major news organisations, however the blog, as previously stated offers the chance to write and publsih his own article on the topic.

Many Journalists are using blogs as a means of selfpublishing and one wonders will the day come where these blogs are a necessity for CV’s.