PressEthic

This AP article on the New York Times online titled “Website to Blend Journalism With Blogs” caught my eye this evening.

It explains:

NEW YORK (AP) -- A media Web site scheduled to debut Wednesday will seek to blend traditional journalism with the freeform commentary developed through the emerging Web format known as blogs.

Some 70 Web journalists, including Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation magazine, have agreed to participate in OSM -- short for Open Source Media.

OSM will link to individual blog postings and highlight the best contributions, chosen by OSM editors, in a special section. Bloggers will be paid undisclosed sums based on traffic they generate.

And later:

Many details of OSM remain unsettled. For example, OSM wants to create a mechanism for citizen journalists, including bloggers, to submit original news during natural disasters, civil unrest and other newsworthy events. Simon said organizers still have to come up with ways to check submissions for accuracy.

Initially, OSM will create blog-like discussion panels surrounding major news events, with three or four bloggers and non-blogging experts chosen to contribute.

So, the gap between blogging and journalism is becoming narrower and narrower, and blogs are starting to become big business. Maybe they aren’t just a trend. Maybe blogs are here to stay. And maybe, just maybe blogging and journalism go hand and hand. . . like peanut butter and jelly, like jelly and doughnuts, like doughnuts and. . . well, you get the picture.

Oh, and they’re going to “come up with ways to check submissions for accuracy.” Maybe they’ll share their solution with the New York Times.

Seriously, I really think the news is going to have to become more opinion-oriented to hold audiences. Objectivity has become passé, mostly because of rising public skepticism -- and that definitely isn’t a bad thing.

Besides, people like opinions and people like personalities. Blogs, along with other alternative media outlets, bring them both, and it’s past time major media started picking up on this. Straight news is boring. Straight news is what my parents and grandparents consume every day. But my generation and following generations. We want to be entertained, not just enlightened. . . Blogs are fun to read, and when has anyone ever said that about the average newspaper?

As a former psychology major, I also think it’s worth noting that Blogs are addicting. . . literally. They follow an uncertain reward schedule similar to gambling. By that I mean, you’re not sure when they will be updated so you have to keep checking. You check and check and check, and eventually, no telling when, you are rewarded with an update. I have one friend who hasn’t updated his blog since June, but, like a crazy lady playing quarter machines, I just can’t help plugging in his website’s address at least once a week.

I’m not saying news is better without deadlines and deliveries, but it is more dynamic, interactive and inherently appealing. I’m interested to see how this new hybrid of blog plus traditional journalism works. I think it will be great. I think it will be the future.