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The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 11:20:44 PM EST
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The New York Times has an article today about journalists and bloggers. It goes on for three pages, and if there's a central theme, I'm not getting it. On the other hand, Jane of Firedoglake does an excellent job of taking the basics of the article and expanding it into what it is that blogs really do, vis a vis the mainstream media.

...bloggers serve the function of analysts. Or re-analyzers, more aptly, who attempt to contextualize as they sort through available data and look for patterns, inconsistencies and greater truths.

....From our standpoint we're trying to come up with new ideas and theories as we try to sort through the available information and expose the systemic bias from which it comes. We're not afraid to be wrong in our speculations, nor are we afraid to interact with people who like to think along side us.

If there's a better description, I haven't seen it. Way to go, Jane.

Update: Digby adds context, Jane heartily agrees in an update.

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    The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists | 9 comments (9 topical)
    Re: The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 11:51:26 PM EST
    I have always insisted that reporters email me questions. It allows me to record the conversations. I wont even speak to them on the phone. This traspired after numerous misquotes, taking what I said out of text, etc. I also insist that they come back to me so that I may quote regarding any opposition- often he who is contacted first- isnt able to defend one's position. I think everyone should protect themselves in this manner. Guess the reporter with the Times is peeved that people have smartened up and are sick of being misquoted and misrepresentated. This may help to prevent so many opinionated reporters writing based on parisand views, as opposed to facts. I encourage victims/consumer to do the same thing to avoid slapp suits.

    Re: The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Jan 02, 2006 at 08:00:47 AM EST
    It's hard to generalize about something as amorphous as the interactions of "journalists" and "bloggers", but it's been my personal experience that blogging (and the internets, including e-mail) has changed the relationship between readers and writers in many ways that is uncomfortable for many writers. In the pre-internet days, dispensing news and opinion was a one-way street, with the audience passively receiving the product and not talking back (except for the inefficient and screened process of Letters to the Editor). I've found most writers to be fairly defensive and unwelcoming to efforts to follow up on their pieces by readers, even with polite criticism. Most writers already seem to have their minds pretty much made up on the basic "take" of their articles and are not receptive to second thoughts from the peanut gallery. (To give you a slight feel for the typical interaction, I submitted reader questions that were asked of NYT reporter Chris Hedges on a NYT forum about something I knew and have written about in published books -- music "fanboy culture". Hedges is a very serious guy, a war correspondent who appears to have seen and written about enough grisly carnage to have PSTD'd every atom of levity from his body. For some reason, the Times had him write a culture piece, where he went out and found the biggest lost souls in the lot and wrote a piece claiming that music fans had forsaken God by finding an alternate religion in hippy-dippyism. And his forum appearance did not disappoint that the d00d refused to even consider that his own take on things from Mount Olympus there might have been even the most wee bit skewed, if not the hatchet job we claimed -- and documented.)

    Re: The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists (none / 0) (#3)
    by theologicus on Mon Jan 02, 2006 at 08:58:59 AM EST
    Blogs are complex and ambiguous, taken as a whole. A recent article in the NYRB claimed that right-wing blogs are having the most influence, though Kos was also mentioned. A lot of what goes on in the threads (even here) seems pretty much like bar-room chatter. But sometimes there is an analysis or a link that can be useful for politically serious readers. Quality blogs like TalkLeft keep us apprised of what's really happening in a way that the mainstream media rarely achieves. It seems that a fair segment of the MSM (including the Columbia Journalism Review) finds such corporation-free discourse to be threatening, though I'm sure that if you look away from the more thoughtful blogs, you can find a lot of nonsense. But in the MSM it's hard to find much else. On the whole I would say that the blogosphere is a liberated zone of inestimable value when consulted wisely. I hate to think of where we would be without it. It's arguably the single most important reason for the existence of the "second greatest superpower in the world today."

    Re: The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Jan 02, 2006 at 10:23:56 AM EST
    What the hell is "fanboy culture"?!?!?

    Re: The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Jan 02, 2006 at 12:33:54 PM EST
    But, the blogs can't go to the masses as quickly and as forcefully as John Kerry can when he attaks the administration.

    Re: The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Jan 02, 2006 at 01:33:54 PM EST
    Cymro, Charlie I believe you are both right. I wont post anything here further. Sorry for wasting everyone's time.

    Re: The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Jan 02, 2006 at 01:39:53 PM EST
    Robert: OK, it's slang but "fanboy" ain't something I just made up...it's even defined a bit adequately in a brief Google search here, for instance. Although it can apply in a self-deprecating way to rabid fans of geek stuff like games, computers, etc, it also has been used to refer to fans of improvisational rock and jazz acts. Folks into those things (myself included) often have to explain our obsession to skeptical folks (i.e., why would you see one band play so many times, collect tape recordings, travel to different cities, etc.). So, what I briefly meant to say in my comment is that the Times or Mr. Hedges went to write about a "scene" that has thousands of passionate adherents who are knowledgeable enough to write books about the music which are 'important" enough to be published by a major publisher and sell through two editions, but Mr. Hedges wants to see a Waco or Charlie Manson type of addicted cultist, so that's what he finds and writes about. "Cultist" do not equal "fanboy". Squeekie Frommer vs. Comic Book Guy of the Simpsons. You might loathe either type, but ones not quite so pathetic or threatening. I just didn't mention the exact type of fanboy because it really doesn't matter in my book and so I could spare myself any derision from any knuckleheads who think it's OK to follow the Giants but not They Might Be Giants (a band for those who need the reference explained). Does that help?

    Re: The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 01:12:27 AM EST
    deleted

    Re: The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists (none / 0) (#9)
    by Edger on Tue Jan 03, 2006 at 11:50:01 AM EST
    bloggers ... attempt to contextualize as they sort through available data and look for patterns, inconsistencies and greater truths Very true I think. Here is an example (and one of the most interesting developments I've read about this year):
    As Americans increasingly lose patience with the U.S. involvement in Iraq, tolerance also is wearing thin in Florida for domestic security policies that some say inhibit international trade, tourism and global exchange among students, researchers and business leaders. ...changes in immigration and national security policies since Sept. 11, 2001, have put a chilling effect on business development, tourism and even foreign student enrollment in Florida. "Once a magnet for foreign direct investment, the United States now ranks among the three most difficult locations in the world to conduct business requiring staff relocation, ranking only behind China and Japan in this race to the bottom," The list of federal acts causing these problems are the U.S.A. Patriot Act, Maritime Transportation Act, Bioterrorism Act, Aviation and Transportation Security Act, Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act. --Miami Herald, January 01/06
    When the business community starts feeling it on the balance sheet like they are in Miami, I think we're on the road, though it may be a slow road, to some realistic thinking. How supportive of Republicans do you think Florida business leaders will be during the '06 elections?

    The Intersection of Bloggers and Journalists | 9 comments (9 topical)