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Read this first for reference.
The first session of Blog Nashville commenced with the Blog - Journalism panel discussion. The panel details and biographies are listed here. Notice how the conjunction in the title is highlighted; that’s how the panel discussion moderator wanted it to be. But I suppose, it is too much to ask for cooperation between blogging and the mainstream media although it wasn’t as pronounced as expected. The panel onstage was neatly divided, although it had some journalists who had turned to the ‘dark’ side recently. The session lasted a little more than half and hour and involved some interesting questions.
The question that seemed to pop in everyone’s mind was whether blogging would prove to be a significant challenge to the mainstream media. Although J.D Lasica was quite critical of MSM’s high handed ways, Glenn put it down succinctly that actually they aren’t in competition at all but in fact, supplementary to each other. Bloggers consist of a wide base of free human investigative capital that no newspaper can dream of having ever. Bloggers cover topics that no newspaper devotes more than 600 words each week. The community benefits from getting passionate and up-to-date coverage of local news that local news stations deems it irrelevant to broadcast. Of course, the MSM has its own limitations in form of space restrictions, economic feasibility, legal wrangling, etc.
But almost everyone was in agreement that blogging is definitely in its infancy and is just beginning to flourish; readership is bound to go up and newer technologies will have to be found to sustain this growing demand for free content.
Ash commented that this seemed a little like a ‘Trekkie conference’ but I beg to differ, considering that this is not a passing fad, like the Internet was not. A conference on the World Wide Web would be similarly ridiculed for imitating real life but we know better now. It is all a matter of perspective; if you consider blogging an extension of the communication medium, you are on the right track. You are mistaken if you think one can replace the other.
My pictures from the panel discussion can be found here. Day 2 was more interesting. Details coming up soon.
Update: Kiran Jonnalagadda aka jace has an article in the Hindu regards the Indian perspective on blogging and journalism.
by Patrix | on Monday, May 9th, 2005 at 8:00 am | 
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May 14th, 2005 at 11:11 am reply
Mela for one, Mela for all!
Wow! I am just so blown away by some of the posts nominated for today’s Mela. There is something for everyone in this - sit back and enjoy the ride! Saket wonders about the nature of God and how he relates with nature and the universe in this tho…