PressEthic

More than merely an example of student activism, recent protest at Gallaudet University could also illustrate the influence of bloggers in an ever-changing world of print journalism.

Blogger and Gallaudet graduate Ricky Taylor calls himself “arguably the most controversial deaf blogger in America,” reported National Public Radio on October 25th. Taylor claims the traffic on his site to have quadrupled since the protests began.

“Protesters demanding the resignation of the new president at Gallaudet get much of their information from Taylor and dozens of other deaf bloggers. Deaf people rely heavily on e-mail and the Web,” said Joseph Shapiro of NPR.

Deaf Americans are not only made unique by their likely reliance on the written word rather than television news, but they also form a cultural subgroup that possesses its own interests and concerns. If deaf people, including students at Gallaudet, are gathering their information from bloggers, this phenomenon is likely to suggest that the mainstream media is not covering the controversy in a way that appeals to this population.

Interestingly, Taylor is not even calling himself a journalist.

“People say I'm a journalist. But no, I'm not that. That's not my goal to be a journalist. My intention is to provide the facts but also enjoyment,” he said through an interpreter on NPR.

With the above statement, Taylor is arguably stating a universal truth about internet journalists: With the title of “blogger,” one can get away with more direct opinion, more entertainment, and more freedom to report in a way that he or she sees fit. Whether out of dissatisfaction towards the media or simply out of their own amusement, bloggers are forming their own journalistic standards.

“We can speak for ourselves. Blogging is something where we can take advantage of the spur of the moment and express our point of view,” said Taylor.

Gallaudet protests seem to have provided a reason for the deaf community to speak out and utilize their own information network. In a population that is rarely represented on mainstream media, trust for large news organizations to report the controversy thoroughly enough is likely to be small.

Taylor told NPR:

“Now media, radio, television, the news, newspapers … tell me one person, deaf person, who works as a writer, journalist or editor. Can you tell me one? So their perspective is different than our point of view.”

Some deaf bloggers, like Elisa Abenchucan, seek to act as more strict news sources than blogs, reported NPR.

“I feel like I'm just reporting on what happened. Providing information,” Abenchucan told Shapiro.

She continued:

“I do put in my own opinion here and there. But I try not to do it too much. I feel there are enough people out there putting their opinions out there. But with recent events, I've felt frustrated and emotionally involved.”

Shapiro said:

“The recent event she's referring to is the arrest of 133 Gallaudet protesters earlier this month. They'd blocked every entrance to the campus, and shut down the school for three days.

Gallaudet administrators called in special Washington police -- ones who used sign language. And then spent two days patiently negotiating with students about how the arrests would take place.

To Gallaudet administrators, this showed they'd bent over backwards to reach out to the protesters. But you won't find any of that in the deaf blogs. Instead, the arrests are bitterly depicted as a moment when deaf administrators betrayed their own deaf students.

Those blogs -- including one that carried a kind of play-by-play of the arrests -- were read by deaf people around the world.”

Shapiro thus appears to imply that with a more contained news-reading community, skewed reporting is likely to profoundly influence a significant percentage of this population. Thus, it may be time for large news organizations, with their supposed goal of balanced reporting, to contribute more thoroughly into the issues of smaller American demographics. Even if their coverage is skewed in their own right, they would at least broaden the discussion.

link to NPR transcript