How did blogs and citizen journalism provide commentary on the Obama Health Reform act?
By Shelley Stevenson
In the absence of more articulate discourse on American Health Reform by traditional media, blogs filled this relative void in the following ways:
- Providing information traditional media did not cover
- Providing a discussion forum – highlighting problems with the current Health Reform legislation and creating a dialog about them
- Linking to alternative views
Background
Access by citizens to traditional media news in the United States has been declining for the past twenty years. The internet has affected most traditional news sources, especially print, by providing an alternate way to access information. This compounded with the migration of advertising to the web, and with the 2008 -09 recessions in the United States, led to an especially large number of newspaper closures, and ‘contractions in news operations’ (Curran 2010: 102). The Christian Science Monitor and the Seattle Post ceased to exist in print at all, choosing to have only a web presence. Continue reading
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