The Noble Amateur

I found the reading by Andrew Keen to be very interesting. The Nobel Amateur article had a different outlook on technology, describing how the internet was ruining our society. Keens article talks about his resentment towards misinformation to the public due to “citizen journalists.” Keen said, “citizen journalists have no formal training or expertise, yet they routinely offer up opinion as fact, rumor as reportage, and innuendo as information.” This leads people to retrieve false information while; the people that are sending out the information aren’t getting recognized for the falsity. In contrast to citizen journalists, Keen said, “Professional journalists acquire their craft through education and through firsthand experience of reporting and editing news under the careful eye of other professionals.” A professional journalist takes credit for the news that they deliver to the public and is accountable for everything noted. Citizen journalists write blogs everyday that have false information however, its a much bigger deal when professional journalists tell the public false news.

In 2004 professional journalist Dan Rather made a huge mistake on live television story on George Bush’s National Guard service and a 60-minute report with fake documents that affected his reputation. He violated many rules as a professional journalist. One major mistake that CBS made was that they didn’t know the documents were authentic however; they were still used to report to the public. This video shows the major difference between professional and citizen journalism. Dan rather, a professional journalist came clean and admitted that he had made a mistake yet, like keen had said, professional journalists are accountable for everything they note. Therefore, Dan Rather decided to step down as anchor for CBS broadcast and CBS deeply apologized to the public for leading them to believe inaccurate information.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?channel=/elements/2004/11/24/eveningnews/videoarchive657614_1_videosection_page.shtml

This incident was dragged out for a long time and it’s seen here on the Colbert Show with professional journalist Bob Schieffer (2 min 50 secs) talking about how CBS made a huge mistake.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=120610&title=bob-schieffer