Blogs Versus Big Media
Kevin Drum has a lengthy essay on the topic and makes several good points. His conclusion:
Needless to say, blogs have plenty of weaknesses as well as strengths, but that’s true of all mediums and I’ll leave that for another time (or another person). Bottom line: blogs are different, not better or worse than radio, TV, or print, and the best blogs are the ones that truly take advantage of the unique strengths of the medium. Those that do, regardless of whether or not they’re really “journalism,” are genuinely new and powerful contributions to the political reporting scene.
While I’m starting to lean toward the idea that some bloggers are sometimes journalists, I agree that it’s really beside the point. If blogs provide content that people find useful, it really doesn’t matter what label one applies.
Not only do we get a different point of view from the blog realm, a lot of time without the spin, sometimes there is even an outlet for our emotions check out http://www.spunmurky.org … after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse photos people have to get together and say a big “NO, this is not ok.â€Â