October 04, 2004
What Matters ...
Jay Rosen contrasts Nick Coleman's disparagement of bloggers with the welcome mat put out by Chris Satullo, editorial page editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. It's well worth reading because (as always) Jay interprets Satullo's embrace of blogging as "enlarging the circle" of civic conversation, as (Satullo's word) "a dynamic expansion of things newspapers have long done to aid democratic dialogue."
Blogs are a platform, as is print and broadcast, and journalism is not defined by the medium but by the nature of the message.
Satullo puts this this way: "What matters is that journalism survive, that the craft of speaking truth to power with factual care not be snuffed out."Adds Jay: "Which puts it beautifully."
And what I've said before in similar vein is this: "The real lesson both the newsroom and the boardroom need to learn is that, in the age of the 24-hour scroll, the micro-fragmentation of electronic media, and the constant clamor for a news consumer's attention by everyone from the New York Times to yours truly, all that's left is the journalism"