By Dana Hull
American Journalism Review
Published: 12/1/2006
Excerpt:
The Fourth Estate has fallen fast and furiously in love with blogs,
from news-driven ones about professional sports teams, real estate,
crime, Hurricane Katrina, immigration and local and national politics
to zanier ones that dive deep into niche subcultures. ...
... The appetite for blogs is so great that some newsrooms also are turning
to local bloggers, freelancers and special guests, or actively
soliciting readers for proposals for new blogs. California's Ventura
County Star hosts a blog written by a local soldier who recently
returned from Iraq. The Houston Chronicle is asking aspiring bloggers
to send an e-mail to the paper describing what they want to share with
the world. ...
... In late August, the Poynter Institute sponsored an invitation-only
seminar on the topic of online journalism standards, including
blogging. About 25 journalists who spearhead their newsroom online and
convergence operations flew to St. Petersburg, Fla., for
two-and-a-half days of intense discussion. The group cobbled together a
working draft of best practices for online journalism that is being
shared and revised; Poynter hopes to make them widely available in the
next few months.
The spontaneous, rapid-fire pace of blogging has added another layer of
complexity to the challenges raised by online journalism. "There's an
inherent tension between the value of speed in an online world and
journalism's obligation to do thorough, accurate work," says Kelly
McBride, the ethics group leader at Poynter, who helped facilitate the
seminar. "And there's this strong sense that the capacity of the
Internet is limitless, but our resources are limited."
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