Saturday, December 20, 2008

And they say bloggers are sloppy!!!!!

Day of Rage - Greek protests: Day 2

Foreign coverage of the events in Greece has been a mixed bag. There have been some very good articles on the causes of the protests, for example the Guardian wrote in depth about the situation (click here) and the BBC's Malcolm Brabant gives a very accurate account of the underlying causes (click here) .

On the other hand I have come across a lot of "remote - control" journalism. The kind where the person has done little more than Google the subject for an hour or so or chatted to some guy in a bar. You know the classic foreign correspondent tactic when abroad and disconnected from the culture. I think this article in the Economist definitely falls into the second category. Sweeping generalisations, lack of context and a blind acceptance of other media sources make for pretty sloppy work.

So, instead I recommend Twitter (#griots hash) which has been a very good source of information and links written by those actually involved or on the scene. Most of it is in Greek but you can translate the page into English by clicking on the button on the right hand side. Also Technorati and Google's blog search can often prove very valuable.

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