Bloggers and mainstream journalists are polar opposites, right? No love lost between them. One represents the future, the other the past. The traditional reporters do all the work, then the bloggers come along and tear it apart. And so goes the argument. Regardless which side of this one you happen to line up on, I am literally on both sides, being a mainstream journalist by career and a blogger by choice. I know alittle bit about the strengths and weaknesses of both, and there are many on each side. The fact is, however, that mainstreamers and bloggers (as well as other online journalists) ought to be cooperating rather than conflicting. If they sought out mutual strengths instead of emphasizing what each sees as the other’s weaknesses, together they could do some incredible journalism. That’s been my view for a long time and today Robert Niles has a far better articulation of the point at the Online Journalism Review site. Says Niles: “‘Citizen journalism’ provides professional reporters the chance to collect many more data points than they can on their own. And ‘mainstream media’ provide readers an established, popular distribution channel for the information we have and can collect. Not to mention a century of wisdom on sourcing, avoiding libel and narrative storytelling technique. “And our readers don’t care. They just want the most complete, accurate and engaging coverage possible. They don’t how we make the sausage, or even who makes it. They just want to eat.” Niles uses a recent piece in The Los Angeles Times on variable pricing by Amazon.com to illustrate his case. Lots of good sense here.
