Watchdog Journalistsm

In Comms 239 we talked about watchdog journalism.

All of us can become watchdog journalists thanks to the internet. We all have the ability to keep tabs on anything and everything.

The government is always a good place to start. But can we weaken the government by what we post? WikiLeaks, http://wikileaks.org/ a professed watchdog, have been accused of making the U.S. military more vulnerable. When we view videos on the internet, we must make sure that we search both sides of the story before we jump to any rash conclusions.  

Watch this WikiLeaks clip posted in April 2010. U.S. soldiers were accused of killing innocent Iraqi citizens. You be the judge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0

How does the United States government react to WikiLeaks? Well, according to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, the U.S. is trying to indict him on criminal charges. Here is an interview with Assange on CNN’s 60 Minutes. http://tinyurl.com/3mcxn3w

I think WikiLeaks and other social media watchdogs can be very useful in exposing truths about the government and other big wigs. But we cannot take everything we read and/or see by face value. A little research never hurt anybody.