Readings:

This week is my team's presentation and there's A LOT of readings this week. At first, it seems all over the place. The first reading is about technology and sounds cliché with the same debate of whether technology is useful to or debasing human life.

Sure, technology has helped human life a lot. What would we do without internet? You wouldn't be reading this, no additional knowledge from Wikipedia, and the whole invention of iPad, iPod, iWhatever are obsolete. A section in the reading that I found ultimately interesting is the discussion on utopianism and dystopianism.

The second and third reading is more specific and talks about the pro and cons on blogs as news-gathering and reporting tools. This is the reading that we used as the main topic of our presentation.

Of course, when we talk about journalism in new media, it is inevitable to have a debate of whether the new media will be able to replace the traditional media in term of being a credible source of information. This is especially confusing because of the emergence of blogs all over the internet, even those that are written by veteran journalists.

Personally, I do not consider blogs as credible source of information, as the main point of blog is carrying the opinion of the writer and anything that is subjective, is questionable. Our presentation then facing a question by our lecture: since technology has proven to improve our life, can't we marry the traditional journalism with technology to create a more efficient journalism?

If it's the question of possibility, yes, of course we can. I think the key is to find a balance between utilization of technology and journalism. For example, to create an online newspaper that is as heavily edited as print newspaper and not written by one guy, but many people and thus lessen subjective opinions. A little trade-off real-time publication for a little more credibility.
It won't be easy, of course, to find the balance, as finding a balance is to find an equilibrium and equilibrium is volatile. But it is possible.