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…blogs—or “citizen journalism” to its most enthusiastic cheerleaders — will never replace the mainstream media (MSM). For all the hype over blogosphere triumphs such as the takedown of Dan Rather or the almost instant posting of cell-phone photos of the 2004 tsunami, the plain fact is that very few blogs do sustained original reporting of their own. It’s also why the endless debate over whether blogs are better or worse than the MSM is pointless. In the same way that newspapers excel at broad coverage of breaking news, TV excels at images, magazines excel at long analytic pieces, and talk radio excels at ranting screeds, blogs also excel at certain things. Trying to compare them to “journalism” is a mug’s game, like trying to figure out if a beanbag is really a chair. Who cares? Beanbags are great for certain forms of sitting down and lousy at others [source.]
The tussle between blogs and the mainstream media over who is better is pointless. This has been said many times over by noted journalists who understand the blogosphere as well as top bloggers who are aware of the blogosphere’s limitations. Kevin Drum makes this point again when he compares blogs as fun chairs. I find the analogy spot on because that is exactly how blogs are - do the job as you see fit but it is fun all the way.
Technorati Tags: blogs, media, mainstream media, journalism, beanbags
by Patrix | on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 12:33 pm | 
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