Bloggers and The Old Media — A Partnership in Evolution?

The now-defunct Press Gazette is carrying the keynote address of Leonard Downie, the executive editor of the Washington Post, at the launch of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford.  Don’t let the title of the keynote speech, “Journalism After Iraq”, fool you however.  Although Mr. Downie does describe the influences of war on journalism, and the attempts of various governments in controlling it, Mr. Downie also goes into great detail about blogging and how it affects old media. 

If you’re at all a fan of what blogs are and what they mean to the Internet, journalism, and the dissemination of truth and opinion, do yourself a favour and read this article.  Mr. Downie makes some interesting parallels between pamphleteers of colonial America with present-day bloggers, and acknowledges the evergrowing symbiotic role between blogging and journalism — and how the former can often act as an important check against the latter; how having one can often lead to great stories for the latter; and how the Washington Post is doing its best to recognize bloggers by crediting them by name when it can.