Jay Rosen and me

And here’s a preview of some of what you might hear. From my background essay, “Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over,” a good thing to read if you’re the type who does her homework.I have been an observer and critic of the American press for 19 years. In that stretch there has never been a time so unsettled. More is up for grabs than has ever been up for grabs since I started my watch. And so it is fortunate that we meet… For this is an exciting time in journalism. Part of the reason is the extension of “the press” to the people we have traditionally called the public.By the press I mean the public service franchise in journalism, where the writers and do-ers of it actually are. That press has shifted social location. Much of it is still based in The Media (a business) and will be for some time, but some is in nonprofits, and some of the franchise (“the press”) is now in public hands because of the Web, the weblog and other forms of citizen media. Naturally our ideas about it are going to change. The franchise is being enlarged.Jay Rosen

I saw this announcement flipping through channles on some local outfit.I was going to ask you Dan, if this was going to be another ‘Mainstream Journalism’ bashhing event where we are yet again going to downplay Journalism as we have known it and magnify the importance of blogs again.Thsi debate is very very overblown in my mind.Blogs cannot make up foir true journalism we’d like to maintain as a sacred institution with a Holy mission to keep the compass up for the public and politicians.Bloggers don’t have reporting importance. there are no blogger financed foreign bureaus and camera crews or beat wirters or investigative reporters or correspondents to witness and report and investigate.All bloggers do is wait for the news to reach them and then they go to work. They anaylize and investigate a bit more ON THE NET mostly, put items together and voila.Bloggers basically replace what we should all be truly doing. If we as an American Public were more aware and able to decipher events on our own and on the fly, there would be no room for blogs.Pleae notice that in Europe, blogs were never necessary. Now they are still very slow to catch on like in the US. That is because people are involved very young and are guided into anaylyzing and disecting and being involved more in events. Over here, kids all the way up to 21 to 28 are still waking up from hangovers and frat parties and Mall hangouts and all sorts of crap. Not to generalize here, but we all know it is rampant.So please don’t overplay this blog thing as the best thing since cslice bread and keep a good perspective and keep it all in prospect.It maybe a symptom rather than a solution.N.