The Power of The Last Word

Have you ever felt that bloggers hold a lot of potential power? I mean, imagine how much they can change people’s perceptions about different things by just writing a post. For example, there are a lot of food blogs out there currently and a restaurant owner pleasing the owners of these blogs may mean a sudden rush of visits to his restaurant. Blogs have become so powerful nowadays that politicians are turning to blogs as a form of marketing, like how Obama uses it in his political campaign.

In my opinion though, the most powerful element of a blog is not just that, but rather it offers potential unprecedented power over the presses. Before the internet existed, it was very hard to verify or learn more about the news we see on TV or the papers. After the internet came into existence, we are able to google for information, but the information we find are mostly still from other news websites.

With the popularity of blogs rising, individuals like myself now have a chance to get our opinions heard and possibly to even have the last words on any subject matter. This is particularly important since individual bloggers now have a chance to verify that what the newspaper published is indeed what they mean and not a distortion of facts due to skillful extraction of what the journalist wants to convey. In fact, they have the power to handle comments like never before, instead of leaving things to each individual’s perception of a specified article.

I don’t really know who termed ‘The Last Word’, but I recall seeing it some time ago and it made a lot of sense. Now, a piece of news does not just end there, it mostly ends with the viewer of the news searching on the internet for more relevant information and the last information he gets is probably from the original interviewee he sees on the papers. Since humans take the last piece of information as most accurate by nature, bloggers having the last word practically mean that they can change the way people think by choosing the correct words.

It is no longer the sole right for the news to alter people’s perceptions on topics of interest. Bloggers and individuals (since every individual can likely start a blog easily) are now having some of the power of propanganda in their hands. It may even be possible for bloggers to shape the world in the future, by slowing influencing people with their careful use of words. The danger lies in how this power is used.