About blogs & journalism

In the aftermath of the Duke lacrosse story, few newspaper editors will be more familiar with the blogosphere than our own Melanie Sill at the News & Observer. That was just the most recent of numerous occasions upon which the paper's energetic and unsparing journalism has run afoul of particularly passionate bloggers.

That makes Mel's thoughtful post on "Journalism AND blogs" especially noteworthy. Her observations (and links to useful commentary like this from Malcolm Gladwell) are definitely worth your consideration.

Good journalism is defined by what it is, not who does it. Journalism involves a discipline of accuracy, verification, fairness, public-mindedness and truth-telling. As part of democracy it empowers citizens by informing them, holds people in power accountable to the rest of us and, conversely, takes responsibility for its own actions.

–Howard Weaver