First Draft by Tim Porter

Blogfire of the Vanity

Columnist James Wolcott, writing in Vanity fair, says "journalism can't and shouldn't be taken over by bloggers, but they can take away some of the toys, and pull down the thrones."

The article is not online, but Jeff Jarvis, whose non-blogging day job as head of Advance.net makes him responsible for Vanity Fair stories not being online, penitently excerpts much of Wolcott's piece on Buzzmachine. Here's a taste:

"Far from being a refuge for nose-picking narcissists, blogs have speedily matured into the most vivifying, talent-swapping, socializing breakthrough in popular journalism since the burst of coffeehouse periodicals and political pamphleteering in the 18th century, when The Spectator, The Tatler, and sundry other sheets liberated writing from literary patronage. If Adison and Steele, the editors of The Spectator and The Tatler, were alive and holding court at Starbucks, they'd be WiFi-ing into a joint blog...." (Emphasis added.)

Blogs are a journalistic catalyst. How much they will change the profession and its most traditional practitioners -- newspapers -- I can't say. I do know, though, that they will further fuel the one idea newspapers must embrace in order to survive: That journalists and the public are partners with a common goal, a free flow of information. Partners must talk in order to succeed -- that's what makes blogs work: conversation.

There's more over at Jarvis.

Posted by Tim Porter at March 11, 2004 07:36 AM