The future of journalism lies in a riot.

In the middle of a riot this week, I had a rather peculiar thought. It happened while I was up front where the action was, taking photographs of people get bashed over the head, clobbered by police wielding rubber batons and tough plastic shields. I could hear the sound of gunshots as they fired rubber bullets to try and disperse the crowd. There was yelling and punching and shoving and kicking, screams of fear, frustration and pain. And in the middle of all this, I kid you not, I somehow found myself thinking about this blog.

It was just a flash, don’t get me wrong. There was too much going on to stop and dwell on anything in particular. It was a time for focus, for gut reactions and fast moving. But there it was, for a split nano-second. A niggling thought about blogging.

I love blogging. I love reading blogs. I’m thrilled at the thought of contributing to a changing media landscape, with the idea of the journalist as entrepreneur in charge of his or her own destiny, relying on cutting edge tools to cut through the bureaucracy of a big media organisation and reach readers directly.

It all sounds great and hugely promising, but let’s be honest here: isn’t about 90% of what we read online in the blogosphere just regurgitated tripe? Isn’t most of it just about over-expanded egos sitting in a coffee shop pontificating and opining on issues that someone else has written about? Isn’t most of it simply leeching on the hard work done by some underpaid grafter on the street? Where, I asked myself in that riotous nanosecond, would most bloggers be without idiots like me who are willing to get in close and risk a crack on the head to get the story?

I know there is good stuff out on the web. Just look at Chris Hondros on Dscriber for a prime example. That stuff is valuable. But he’s in a minority. I want to read more original material, I want opinion based on real-life experience and firsthand reporting. I want, in other words, the writer to have done some legwork before sitting down to write. It doesn’t have to be frontline material, it just has to be yours. Perhaps it’s based on material sold and published elsewhere because, let’s carry on being honest, blogs rarely pay. But whatever it is, it should be yours to start with.

That’s what I’m looking for and, allowing for the occasional lapse now and then, that’s what I plan to serve up from now on. Promise.

p.s. The riot, for the record, was the culmination of a fortnight of demonstrations by Spanish municipal workers demanding their salaries. Their employer, the town council in La Linea, is bankrupt and crippled by investigations into allegations of financial scandal. The workers have just been paid their October salaries. Expect more trouble in the weeks to come.

You can see more of my photos of the riot here.