From Poynter Online, by Steve Outing:
"Big media has to learn to be more honest," says Jeff Jarvis, a media executive who moonlights as a blogger, "that is, to level with its public, to reveal its prejudices, and process as citizen journalists (bloggers) do."
The popularity of bloggers is leading to a new way of thinking about news. Jarvis said in an e-mail interview that the most profound thing he learned when he started blogging is this: News is a conversation, not just a lecture. The story doesn't end when it's published, but rather just gets started as the public begins to do its part — discussing the story, adding to it, and correcting it.
Jarvis is by day president of Advance Internet, the new-media arm of Advance Communications; by night he is the popular independent blogger behind BuzzMachine. As a 50-something media executive with a lengthy print-journalism background (including as a reviewer for TV Guide) and a new-found enthusiasm for blogging, he's well suited to advise the profession on striking a middle ground between traditional journalism and blogging.
"The news isn't done when we print it," he says. "That's when the public can add questions, corrections, perspective. That will improve news. And it also will change our relationship with the public."
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