Alternative News

     For the most part I do not watch mainstream news.  I never take the time to seek it out because I personally feel as though watching the news is similar to being told what you should or should not know about.  The goal of any news source should be to cover an event as objectively as possible, but I think by simply listening to what a news station is choosing to be news, we are getting a subjective opinion.

     When word begins to spread about a crisis or current event most people would generally go to a big name news TV channel or website.  It has been ingrained in us that the big name news companies are “the best,” but why is that?  Is it because the duration of time they have been around?  Is it the fact that they are the biggest and bigger is obviously better?  While covering a breaking story, all of the big news stations have access to the same information and in return the audience is being beaten over the head with repeated facts.

     The article by John W. Jordan makes a really good point about news and the way we choose to get it.  I understand that alternative online news sources come with a veil of uncertainty over them because there is no way to be positive about their accuracy.  With the possibility of being “catfished,” some people are turned off to the idea of alternative online news sources.  They are passing up the opportunity of gaining an even clearer idea of what is actually happening.

     In the article titled Baghdad Burning, the reader gets a fresh and potentially even more truthful look inside the events taking place in Syria.  The article is a compilation of blogs from people who were currently living in Syria.  The big news companies could only deliver to the US citizen’s information from an outside point of view.  The blogs allow you to see the events through a different set of eyes, which has the potential to reshape your opinion of the situation.  Even though the blog authors are not distinguished professional reporters, I strongly believe that is not the most important factor contributing to what makes good news coverage.