'A little journalist in all of us'

Former first lady Imelda Marcos used to write for the paper (the now defunct Philippine Post) I used to work for and she used as a kicker in her column a shoe advertisement-slogan, which says "There's a little Imelda in all of us." I would like to use that slogan and change the world Imelda to journalist so it would now read as "There's a little journalist in all of us."

This is probably the reason, why blogging and moblogging have become such a hit that some even say that it would or is reshaping the way traditional journalists do journalism.

This journalist in us, stems from a innate desire to share information and acquire information or in the words of Futurist Howard Rheingold "an insatiable human thirst for new ways to learn, create, and communicate..." But we traditional journalists, know that journalism does not not end there. The journalists' role goes beyond providing information because it is they who make sense of all the available and sometimes confusing information that the public needs to make intelligent decisions.

Like I said in my previous posts, I have misgivings about "we journalism" because it is still uncertain whether this is just a fad or something that is sustainable and something that the public would be willing to bring to the next and more serious level to develop this nascent media culture.

Bloggers and mobloggers should not mistake the tool for the task. If they want to empower this medium, they should live the essential values that kept traditional journalism very much alive -- truth, accuracy, fairness and reliability.

I strong believe nonetheless, that old media should learn from new media and vice versa. Old media should learn from the best of what new new media can offer and new media should do the same.