Blogs and their Relation to News

Hey there! Vincent here.

I have never blogged before, so please excuse me for my lack of knowledge on the nature of blogs and their relationship with news. Really, all I can give you is my perspective and not something completely accurate. 

 

 “Do you agree with Andrew Ferguson that blogs are self-perpetuating, parasitic news organisms? Explain"

Are blogs self-perpetuating?

They certainly seem to be! The blogosphere seems to be a place where people commentate on news that they hear about through the grapevine. The grapevine most probably includes other blogs as well as other sources of news. Blogs blog about other blogs.

Are blogs parasitic?

Hmmm… according to Google, a parasite is: “an organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense.” I’m thinking that blogs obtain their information from more official news sources, and when they become popular enough, they may draw viewers away from those news sources…. So in that sense, perhaps they are parasitic.

Are they news organisms?

Some blogs’ main functions are to spread news. So I would say yea, they are news organisms.

So, to answer the question, I would have to say that I agree with Ferguson that blogs are self perpetuating, parasitic news organisms. (I don’t necessarily think of them as negative though!)