We Want Media

The Reuters website will soon include blogs alongside news articles. The blog entries will come from Global Voices Online, an international blog network coordinated by Harvard University.

This is a rather clever approach to mixing news with blogging--using an organization like this one, which has editors and some credibility to back its writers’ words. I am still unclear as to how the organization will monitor the blogs that go alongside the Reuters news articles. But either way, the organization has the incentive of upholding its own reputation to make sure that what the bloggers are saying is accurate and appropriate. This of course lessens many concerns that a publication would normally have if comments were open to the general public, such as libel and profanity.

Since the bloggers from Global Voices Online are from, well, around the globe, having their commentary alongside regular news stories could really put the issue in an international context, which many people, especially Americans, would never even think to consider.

And with so many controversial issues in the press right now, adding some commentary seems like a necessary addition to news coverage. Especially with elections coming up, leaving opinion out of the press seems unnatural--people want to see what people what other people think, and they want to see what kinds of political conversations are taking place around the country and around the world.