Authority is a Social Construct, Not An Objective One

I’d just like to draw people’s attention to a really excellent comment Olivier Amprimo of Headshift left on a earlier post about the relationship between authority, research and blogging:

Blog reluctants don’t know how to filter informations with tag filters and RSS feeds.
They don’t understand – or maybe they understand too well – that what
is at stake is not relevance or objectivity but rather how this objectivity is socially
built. That is an epistemological debate and it does
have an impact on certain professions. We have been used to build it on
diplomas or professional ethic codes (journalists, physicians,
university professors) for ages. This was a (ancient Greek-like) way to
organise a stable society. We have completely overlooked the fact that,
no matter the diploma or ‘business’ card, relevance is an ever-going
and demanding process.

It’s a thought-provoking and challenging reply, that’s helping reshape my idea of journalistic authority and relevance.