Final assignment for Week 1

I have been following the debate on this question and I have found a lot of arguments convincing. My own views are that we as the writers of these blogs  and decide how much to share and what opinions to give depending on the tone of our blog. Perhaps as in life we should use more digression with our opinions depending on the topic. If you have a food blog and didn't include strong opinions on the foods you were eat, let's say I can honestly say that I would stop reading it.

While many have noted we should be careful sharing more information the simple Name, Location, Education, etc. I think a strong case can be made for even further disclosure in some instances. I think that some of the most successful bloggers have been far more open about themselves and there lives. Take the case of Megan McCardale of Atlantic Monthly. She is one of the more famous economics and finance bloggers in the U.S,  who started out blogging anonymously and then grew comfortable enough with the medium to start blogging more openly to the extent that she even announced her engagement on her blog.

Again though I'd like to return to the question of opinion. Don't be too afraid to show your opinion in your blog. Blogs were invented in the first place for people to share opinions! In fact we live in a world were information is (no offense) cheap. I can (and do) go online all the time to learn about the politics and affairs of many countries around the globe. However, finding informed comment is something more rare. I think the future of opinion of journalism is to some extent...opinion journalism. We will be counted on to give informed opinions on a variety of topics.

In these instances I believe the general public would much rather prefer someone who openly stated their biases than trying to mask these on their blogs.

Just my thoughts.

Are Unreliable sources underrated?

As journalists must reject as false the idea that some sources are going to be reliable all the time and some other sources are going to be unreliable all the time. Both premises are full of exceptions.

For example the site CBN News is clearly an Evangelical Christian themed news source. Which we could in one sense be considered unreliable for many, many news stories. However, if one where writing a story about say Evangelical Christian Reactions to say a government policy. I could see quoting a site the like CBN (which clearly considers itself a serious news source) in an article.

Conversely, a site like Al-Arabiyya is typically considered a reliable source. This network has done a lot of quality journalism in the past. Al-Arabiyya has had journalists die in the field in its commitment to quality journalism and it was the first news site to interview President Obama after he took office. Because of its commitment to journalism Al-Arabiyya has often times come into conflict with host governments which may make sources reluctant to deal with the network in the future and taint its coverage.

Additionally, as journalists I believe sometimes unreliable sources can even be useful. When I worked in Egypt I often started my day by browsing the local press. Often times I'd read some thing that seemed unreliable and commit myself to researching and seeing if this was true. I'm going to post a link on my blog to a story I did on Egyptian potatoes following claims in the Arabic Language press that the E.U had banned the importation of Egyptian potatoes. My article got quotes from official sources that claimed otherwise.

So I think those of of us in the free press have a responsibility to use reliable sources and also to keep an eye on the unreliable sources.

As for two blogs I think are reliable.

1) The official U.S State Department blog(DipNote) is  reliable place for policy wonks to go for information. It's very dry though perhaps because of this.


2) For a blog on foreign policy that is both reliable and is also much more readable is  "FP Passport" the official blog of Foreign Policy magazine. They do make mistakes occasionally and when they do they correct themselves in a public way which is very important for bloggers.

Welcome

This Blog was created as part of the "Freedom of Expression in the Digital Age" course sponsored by
 United Nations Alliance of Civilization's sponsored and hosted by ICFJ.

My name is Joseph and I'm a journalist who is excited about this program and to be working with you.

Thank you and Shukran!