Is blogging the new form of Journalism? Should bloggers be held to the same standards as the media? These are the questions that need to be answered as you watch this video from Chris Pirillo of http://live.pirillo.com.

Some of the Comments on this Video:

Commentor 1: Good subject chrus. If you are getting paid to blog for a company, then you have a set of standards, and therefore should be held accountable.

In many cases, bloggers are more trusted than journalists, because good bloggers link out to things they write about thereby sourcing their work.

All good writers, whether a blogger, journalist or both, should practice good writing, and good writing includes being responsible for what you write.

Commentor 2: I can not say I am a good writer in the English language, but I hate seeing a blog with only pictures on it. They take longer to load in my opinion. If all I want to post is pictures then I open a web gallery instead. I hear picasa is a good. These bloggers are degrading all those that want more than just a fresh look at someone’s behind. At least tell the audience why you think that behind is that special in a paragragh or two, before taking such bold move.

Commentor 3: I don’t believe bloggers are journalists as journalism takes some skill, however I do believe they play a fairly important role in providing sometimes useful or interesting information, via the web.

I have a blog and also do some journalism work. they do not cross.

Our ability to reach across time and space and build connections via technology with anyone, anywhere and at any time is changing more than our sense of community; it’s changing how we communicate, too.

“There is a new language being produced, although it’s not replacing our existing language,” says anthropologist Patricia Sachs Chess, founder and president of Social Solutions Inc., a consulting firm in Tempe, Ariz.

Chess and others point to the use of slang and jargon (both pre-existing and newly developed for today’s instant communication tools), phonics, abbreviations and colloquial syntax as the evolving standards for electronic discourse.

And this new vernacular is spilling over into traditional writing and oral exchanges. “The first thing that comes to mind is the term bandwidth,” Chess says. “It is a technology term and has become incorporated in the language in ways such as, ‘Do you have enough bandwidth to take on that project?’ There’s also ‘I’ll IM you’ and ‘Just text me.’ “

While we aren’t seeing those yet in formal writing, she says, they are common in casual writing such as e-mails and in everyday conversation.

This emerging language could presage even deeper changes in what we value, which skills we possess and, ultimately, what we’re capable of. For example, Gregory S. Smith, vice president and CIO at World Wildlife Fund, a Washington-based nonprofit, says he has seen the quality of writing among younger generations of workers decline in the past decade or so, corresponding with the rise in instant messaging, texting and Twitter.

“The advent of tools that allow for these short types of content are flooding the Internet with writing that doesn’t matter, and they’re lowering the grammatical and writing skills of our up-and-coming professionals,” says Smith, who also teaches at Johns Hopkins University.

The contribution of the Internet for the purpose of researching was undeniably a great one. In fact, researchers prefer to use the Internet as the information source rather than books. But are you one of those who have gotten tired of the numerous pages of results being showed to you when in fact it is monotonous in content? Well, Wolfram Alpha will be the key for this problem.

Wolfram Alpha is the computer software invented by Dr. Stephen Wolfram, a British inventor, which will function in the same way as Google. However, the difference is that it will provide the very answer for the specific query the user has entered. Wolfram Alpha will not only give you straight answer but will give you detailed charts and images of the people or thing you are researching on. It will also feature more accurate results since the answers that will be given will be assessed first by experts. With these distinct feats, Wolfram Alpha might be able to surpass the ability or search engines such as Google and Wikipedia.

For me who is an avid user of the Internet, if Wolfram Alpha will be released (probably near the end of the month of May), Google and Wikipedia will be obsolete search engines to some extent. With the birth of the Wolfram Alpha, the research of students and other researchers will be easy since accurate answers will be given with detailed representations.

In the middle of a practice session of the Dallas Cowboys football team, a thunderstorm hit their area that made their tent-like facility collapse. No casualties were reported but some of the people there sustained serious injuries.

Rich Behm, scouting assistant of the Dallas Cowboys was reported to be stable now at the Parkland Hospital after his surgery to his thoracic spine. However, Behm sustained a permanent damage and his body parts down from the waist are now completely paralyzed. He was one of the people who were hurt by the said accident. Other victims include Joe DeCamillis who sustained a fracture to his cervical vertebrae and Greg Gaither who got his right leg fractured. All of the victims were said to be fine except for Behm and DeCamillis whose injuries were severe.

The 64 mph storm hit the area in the middle of the practice without warning. The storm was only about a mph away for a possible weak tornado. The place that could have protected them was the one who have made them to have injuries. National Weather Service stated that “microburst” might have been the cause for the wind gust to increase up to 70 mph at the top of the facility that was built in 2003 and made the entire building collapse.

Other Dallas Cowboys team members have given their sympathies to the families of those who were seriously injured especially for that of Behm’s and DeCamillis’. Giving my own point of view for this particular event, the accident might have been avoided if early warning was given to the people in the facility. It was not that the facility was weak, but because of the unpredicted turn of events, the accident occurred showing us that nature will turn against us without any warnings at all.