Memeburn Editor, Jeremy Daniel, asked Janet Heard, Nieman Fellow and Assistant Editor and Head of News at the Cape Times in South Africa, about the status of blogging at the moment in US journalism?
JH: Everybody seems to have a blog in the US, not just freelancers. Journalists working for traditional media often have their own personal blogs, but many are linked to the newspaper’s web sites. One of the first things people ask you during an introduction is “What is your blog address?” Also, citizen journalism, via blogging, has broadened the scope of reporting, and widened the range of voices available to the public.
But a big debate was how to discern between credible field reporting and unsourced, aggregated information, and also between hysterical ranting and considered opinion. The reality is there are a lot of shocking blogs in the US that do a disservice to journalism.
It should be noted, that the same can be said of US radio, TV and print vehicles.