The University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Daily had a great recap and many great points following a panel discussion about blogs and politics. (Found courtesy of Poynter’s Romenesko.)
Among those on the panel was New York Times reporter David Carr (the Times’ first blogger, and an alumnus of the U of Minnesota). One brief line in the article by Carr echoed something I think is easy to see in bloggers:
Carr said he was afraid that blogs may become “typed talk radio.”
That’s an observation I made a day short of a year ago:
We’re all just the online versions of talk radio hosts. Think about it. Talk show hosts:
> Give opinion.
> Give news (typically via interviews).
> Invite listener call in.
Isn’t that what blogs are all about?
Other interesting points from the story include:
1) “These are people (bloggers) who don’t just want to cover the outcome,” Carr said. “They want to help determine it.”
But Carr also said blogs are heavily polarized and don’t really provide much of a middle ground for political thought. [ME: That’s when bloggers having a thick skin and being open minded can be beneficial and really develop blogging into a conversation.]
2) (Star Tribune reporter Eric) Black said that his goal would be for the blogosphere to inject more journalistic values into its reporting. Blogs, he said, reinforce the beliefs of their readers, instead of challenging them. [ME: Amen. While opinion is valid and desired, a level of fairness, or least open-mindedness is healthy, too.]
3) Carr said the mainstream media can’t be everywhere at all times, but the blogosphere has an army of “Web crawlers” who can pick up the slack.
“The idea that it has to be in the Star Tribune to be valid is crazy,” Carr said. [ME: Yes, count blogs among the growing media tree to reach our audiences.]
– Mike
