On Matt's Welch's THE NEW AMATEUR JOURNALISTS WEIGH IN

Welch's blog was refreshing to read in many ways. It drove home the point that mainstream media, as important as it is, is generally the same in every outlet and alternative journalism that popped up many years ago has pretty much gone the same way as the mainstream organizations. He stated that blogs are good because it allows anyone with access to the internet to write their own piece and have people read and comment on it.

In this new age it appears many journalists have, as Helen Thomas stated, lost most of their power and gave up their their only real weapon - skepticism. This is where I find blogging to be the new alternative journalism because anyone from a car mechanic to an astronomer can weigh in their opinion on whatever is on their mind and many of these blogs spark conversation that sometimes can lead to a "real" news story.

I feel since mainstream news seems to care more about Britney shaving her head than some 19-year-old marine getting his head blown off we need blogs to keep people on their toes and issues relevant. We need these independent voices to reach out and invigorate people on the internet to think about issues that are either passed over or rarely spoken of in the mainstream press.

My first two blogs are about a film I thought was revolutionary and that I feel will inspire a new way of filmmaking and my favorite movies of the year. Without a blog I could write these pieces, but they would be sitting in a notebook at my house for only me to read rendering them all but useless. But with my blog on the internet anyone can read them and react to my opinions if they please.

It's a new world with the digital age upon us and blogging is going to, hopefully, become more respected. As Welch said, this is something that was supposed to happen when the internet became a reality in the '90s. With many mainstream publications eschewing alternative journalism and conforming with every other media outlet blogging has become necessary for alternative reporting. The last work Hunter S. Thompson, a king of alternative journalism, was doing before he passed away was he had a blog. This should have been an indicator that the future of alternative reporting will not be in Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair, but rather on the internet by your average person with an opinion and a keyboard.