Sullivan The Builder

While Jeff Jarvis blabbers on about the facts of how news has changed, we are not given any type of opinion explaining whether Jarvis believes that this has helped us or not. No, rather we are just threatened by oversimplified charts that show that the world has changed from the old way of news gathering (directly from the press to us), and has evolved into a system of overlaps enclosing the “me-sphere” as Jarvis calls it.

But, did we not already know this? Of course. We have been reading similar issues for the past few months. So, I get to Sullivan. In what Jarvis lacked in sophistication, Sullivan made up for in opinion. Jarvis tries not to take any role in whether he agrees or disagrees with what has happened. Sullivan, on the other hand shows his views from the start. As I have said in class, I believe it would have been easier to write about Jarvis’s blog if he would have expressed some opinion.

So, what is Sullivan’s opinion, and why does it matter? Well, as we all know Sullivan thinks that the shift from the old ways of reporting, and news gathering to the new are a good thing. He even defends his view with: “To the charges of inaccuracy and unprofessionalism, bloggers could point to the fierce, immediate scrutiny of their readers” (Why I Blog). For those who would say that this shift toward the more internet based news makes the news that Americans see, unedited and unkempt, Sullivan would disagree. He says that the more internet based we have become, has helped the ways in which we can view the kinds of news we want. Therefore, is it not enough to say that, though Jarvis told of the change, Sullivan enlightened the community of what exactly was inferred?