The Effect of The Blogosphere

The freedom of the press and crowd targeting could cause problems but it can also turn out to be a solution, it all depends on how it is used. Freedom of the press on blogs could detect all of the information that is not mentioned by major news stations, news papers, or the candidates themselves. On the other hand it could also release false information that would hurt or benefit the candidate. “The duty of the journalist is to further [public enlightenment] by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with throroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility.” (Society of Professional Journalists).
When writing to a blog, one must keep away from biased opinions such as omitting valuable information, stereotypes, double standards, and anything else that might alter an individuals opinion based on false or missing information. On that note, Pew research center for Excellence in Journalism made a statistic in 2008 between september and october and had discovered that Obama had received more coverage on the web and for every 1.4 positive stories there was 1 negative. Conversely every positive story for McCain resulted in 3.5 negative ones. (Winning the Media Campaign: How the Press Reported the 2008 Presidential General Election, 2008)
The main issue of the “blogosphere” is the human perception of the truth which is not totally reliable. Facts are indisputable, they affect perception but once facts are mixed with other perceptions and opinions they distort the overall outcome. In 2008 the outcome was a 7% difference in votes in favor of obama, more specifically 69,456,897 vs 59,934,814 votes. (Public Disclosure Division of FEC 2009) This result could have been influenced by the internet but it is not certain, it could have been that the candidate was actually better and was able to show it throughout the campaign. What is certain is that the two are highly correlated.