Nov 20, 2008
Are these the biggest moments in journalism-blogging history?
Here’s another one for that book I’m working on – I’m trying to think: what have been the most significant events in the history of journalism blogging?
Here’s what I have so far (thanks Mark Jones and Nigel Barlow):
- 1998: The Drudge Report breaks the Monica Lewinsky story. While Drudge denies the site is a blog, it demonstrated how the nimbleness of an online operation could scoop the mainstream media.
- 2001: September 11 attacks: while news websites collapse under the global demand, a network of blogs pass on news and lists of survivors
- 2002: Trent Lott forced to resign after apparently pro-segregationist statements made at an event and initially ignored by mainstream media, were picked up and fleshed out by bloggers
- 2003: Invasion of Iraq: Salam Pax, the ‘Baghdad Blogger’, posts updates from the city as it is bombed, providing a particular contrast to war reporters ‘embedded’ with the armed forces and demonstrating the importance of non-journalist bloggers
- 2003: Christopher Allbritton raises $15,000 through his blog Back-to-Iraq 3.0, to send him to report independently from the war, demonstrating the ability of blogs to financially support independent journalism (called the ‘tip-jar model’).
- 2004: Rathergate/Memogate: CBS’ 60 Minutes broadcast a story about George W. Bush’s National Guard service, and within minutes a section of the blogosphere mobilises to discredit the documents on which it is based. Dan Rather eventually resigns as a result.
- 2004: Asian Tsunami: more blogs mobilise around a disaster, of particular significance for video blogging
- 2005: July 7 Bombings, London: mobile phone image of passengers walking along Tube tunnel posted on MoBlog (although was first sent to The Sun), and goes global from there. A significant moment in moblogging.
- 2006: The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service cites the blog run by the New Orleans Times Picayune during Hurricane Katrina. The flexibility of blogs during a disaster which stopped printing presses and delivery trucks was driven home (h/t Bob Stepno).
- 2007: Talking Points Memo blog breaks story of US attorneys being fired across the country, demonstrating the power of involving readers in an investigation, and carrying it out in public (h/t Albert in the comments).
- 2007: Dave Winer wins his $2,000 bet (made in 2002) that blogs will rank higher than the New York Times for the top 5 news stories of 2007 (h/t Bob Stepno), demonstrating the importance of blogging in news distribution.
- 2007: Myanmar protests: the clampdown that followed democratic protests in the country was seen around the world thanks to blogging, moblogging, and social networking sites. Journalists were not allowed in the country. Even after the government cut off the internet, bloggers located outside the country continued to post material. (h/t Sandra Fish in comments)
- 2008: Peter Hain resigns over donations revealed by UK political blogger Guido Fawkes, who in 2006 broke a story on an affair by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott which he claimed lobby correspondents were sitting on
- 2008: Chinese Earthquake: a key moment for microblogging, as news of the earthquake spreads on Twitter (and Chinese IM service QQ) quicker than any official channels.
- 2008: Collapse of Northern Rock: BBC correspondent Robert Peston breaks one of the biggest stories of the year – not on TV, but on his blog.
What have I missed? This is a horribly Anglo-American list, too, so I’d particularly welcome similar moments from other countries.
40 Comments, Comment or Ping
Shinykatie
I keep thinking about this after you asked for suggestions on Twitter and I know there are more, but I just can't find them in my brain. Good list though!
Nov 20th, 2008
Daniel Bennett
1999 Development of easy-to-use software – Live Journal started and Blogger was launched by Pyra Labs.
Nov 20th, 2008
albert
What about TalkingPointsMemo and the US Attorneys scandal?
Nov 20th, 2008
Bob_Stepno
Four nominations, more about professional journalism coming to accept blogging. See tinyurl.com/68q7bh
Nov 20th, 2008
sandra fish
the Myanmar unrest in 2007 was huge – until the govt. shut down Internet access.
Nov 20th, 2008
Matthew Bennett
What about this year's US elections, with Obama's use of social media and blogs to help him into the White House?
Nov 20th, 2008
Paul Bradshaw
Thanks. How big was that in the US? It did demonstrate the crowdsourcing potential, so I think I'll put it in. Will also include Christopher Allbritton's Back to Iraq for showing fundraising potential.
Nov 21st, 2008
Paul Bradshaw
Great point, Sandra – will add it in.
Nov 21st, 2008
Paul Bradshaw
Those are wonderful, Bob, thanks – not sure whether the Winer moment was key in 2002 when he made the bet, or in 2007 when he won it!
Nov 21st, 2008
Paul Bradshaw
Tough call. It's not a blogger doing journalism or a journalist doing blogging, but it does bring home the importance of blogs as a source… (if not as a medium) Howard Dean would probably be an equal milestone if I was to go that direction – particularly the hiring of Daily Kos man Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. I'm gonna hold back on this to see if anyone else has a take…
Nov 21st, 2008
Matthew Bennett
As something to watch, reading Narvic the other day, he was talking about SixApart''s new Journalist Bailout programme for all of the hacks being laid off in the States. The economic crisis plus the lack of a viable news business model in many places plus the development (not premature death) of blogs might have a big impact on journalism-blogging.
Nov 21st, 2008
Bob_Stepno
Maybe the 2002 event is that The New York Times bet newspapers would /win/ — the fact that the Times was taking that much notice of blogs and setting up RSS feeds via Userland.
Nov 21st, 2008
Bob_Stepno
US blogs raising pro journos' consciousness of blogging in 1999 — Jim Romenesko's MediaNews.org (now Poynter.org/romenesko)became a must-read for print industry gossip, memos, layoffs etc. Around the same time Dan Gillmor's original San Jose Mercury blog showed how a print newspaper reporter could use a blog to have a conversation with readers.
Nov 21st, 2008
Paul Bradshaw
True – but did they initiate the bet?
Nov 21st, 2008
Paul Bradshaw
This is another difficult one. I'm not sure how key a 'moment' these are – for the same reason I've left out the successes of Daily Kos, Boing Boing, etc. Did Gillmor have any particular successes that demonstrated the power of the medium?
Nov 21st, 2008
paulos72
how could you omit the biggest story of the summer olympics broken by this guy: http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2008/08/hack-olympi...” target=”_blank”>http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2008/08/hack-olympi...
Nov 21st, 2008
paulbradshaw
Thanks Paulos72 – I didn’t know about that story and it’s a great example of computer assisted reporting/blog journalism. Not sure it’s significant in affecting blogging journalism more widely, however – I could also have included various other big scoops by blogs (Chinese pet food story and Itchmo etc. is one strong case), but they all prove the same point: blogs can do journalism.
Nov 21st, 2008
Matt Wardman
You could include events such as the response by gay Iranian bloggers to the Ahmadinejad statement that there were no gays in Iran. Of interest but not transformative.
Nov 22nd, 2008
Matt Wardman
My four extra:
Integration Podcasts and Enclosures with RSS
Nosemonkey 7/7 Liveblog
Hutton Enquiry Reporting instantly Via Website
Imams’ Mohammed Cartoons Campaign (Cartoons already Published in Egypt without protest, forged photo of Mohammed caricatured as a pig).
I think you also need a sample list of “seminal moments in local blog-reporting”.
Matt
Nov 25th, 2008
Kyle Christie
Hi Paul,
Thought you might be interested in the first line of a CNN article on Twitter, social media and the Mumbai attacks (http://tiny.cc/5noaU)
‘It was the day social media appeared to come of age and signaled itself as a news-gathering force to be reckoned with.’
You kind of wonder where they’ve been the past few years? I would imagine the Mumbai attacks could be added to your list.
Did a blog post on this http://tiny.cc/VUeM5
Nov 27th, 2008
paulbradshaw
Indeed, and by this account – http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/532930.php – social media has not played such a large role in this.
Nov 28th, 2008
Mindy McAdams
Hi, Paul. Just posted something similar, but shorter — key moments in breaking news reporting:
http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2008/breaking-news-online-a-short-history-and-timeline/
One thing you’ve omitted here, but maybe rightly so, is the Virginia Tech shootings. The reports appeared more on social networking sites than blogs in that case.
I like your list very much, but a few of the British events stand out for me in that no one in the U.S. knows anything about them. Thus there are probably some key events in other countries that you (and I) have omitted through simple ignorance.
Nov 29th, 2008
Pramit Singh
In India, bloggers have long been doing what the Main Stream Media have been reluctant to do: bring out the truth. The MSM – Corporate- Political complex is huge out here.
1. In 2005, blogger Gaurav Sabnis wrote about the wrong doings of a private Business School IIPM (Google” IIPM” scandal). The traditional em dia outlets were reluctant to follow up because of the said Business School’s huge ad spends.
2. During 2008 Bihar Floods bloggers from the State of Bihar mounted a co-ordinated effort to channelize relief efforts.
3. Many, many times bloggers in India have brough out stories of mainstream media (newspapers) plagiarising from bloggers or other online news sources.
Nov 30th, 2008
Nicolas
this ? born in french 2 days ago… (http://aaaliens.com/)
Nov 30th, 2008
Andy
Hi Paul.
Great list. I’ve created a dipity timeline from your list and Mindy’s post on a similar subject.
I also had a suggestion for the list which popped up whilst I was thinking about some defining moments of the Presidential election. How about a mention for Mayhill Fowler who got two big scoops via the huffington.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/bill-clinton-purdhum-a-sl_b_104771.html
and earlier
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html
She certainly generated some hand wringing on the trad media.
Dec 1st, 2008
paulbradshaw
Thanks Andy, that slideshow looks incredible. Wish I’d have thought of that!
Dec 3rd, 2008
BristleKRS
I think that the December 2008 insurrectionist events in Greece, precipitated by the shooting dead of Alexandros Grigoropoulos by police, is something in which it was citizen journalists such as Teacher Dude and activist-reporters such as those from Occupied London who were at the forefront of globalising coverage, translating local reports, and providing a focal point for breaking news which was ignored or not picked up by the mainstream media (note: the two examples given are English language sites, but are Greece-based/were in Greece at the time).
There are many instances of bloggers and microbloggers in China reporting on things which are subject to official censorship (rural riots, urban protests etc) – I can’t think of any specific examples, but the UK-based Blood & Treasure blog follows much of it and would, no doubt, be able to supply examples.
Nov 25th, 2009
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