New Media: Blog or Print?

While yesterday's Blog University event was more of a workshop 'learning' format, today's sessions were in one room and packed with panels and interactive discussions that revolved around ethics and communications strategies.

The first panel on Blogging and Journalism included Jeremy Wright, Fast Company's Heath Row and former Financial Times columnist Tom Foremski and was moderated by ProfNet's Dan Forbush.

Neville Hobson also blogged about the session and has a great shot of the group. It's amazing how fast he gets his posts up - he may be up there with David Weinberger. A blog animal.

The first question was about whether the dynamics of blogging have changed the way they deal with PR executives. Tom doesn't think it changes the communication process at all, Jeremy feels that it is dramatically different and Heath is mixed.

On the topic of online versus print. It's always a win if something on the web or a blog makes it into print, says Heath Row. Tom says that journalists steal from other journalists all the time. It's clear that switching from a world of traditional print journalism to blogging has made a significant impact on his life.

Someone from the audience asks: what makes a blog entry journalism opposed to just rambling? Tom says, "I ask myself this question. Is blogging just another form of journalism? It's really more of a super-set of journalism. Blogging allows for free-form thinking and creation. You don't have to edit for style like you do when you write for a column in print. It's cutting away from that old form of print journalism, experimenting and being innovative in different ways. This is what excites me."

Others agree. Blogs today are what journalism used to be in the early days. Today, we're starting to see 'real facts and honest truth,' - transparency at its best. "There's no reason why my brain dumps should be getting 100,000 readers," says Jeremy. It's because its raw, transparent and honest.

Heath jumps in, "Blogging encompasses all forms of writing. That being said, I consider the blogging I do for Fast Company a form of immediate journalism. As soon as something happens, everyone can know about it within moments."

He refers to the objective true voice in journalism. We can try to be as objective as we want, but its still subjective. We're just not honest about it. Blogging really brings out the personality of the writer. If they disagree with an opinion, you can see why and its immediate - it comes across in a very human way. Blogs are subjective and there's also the intersubjectivity that David Weinberger refers to."

So what's next? Will everyone on this panel become talk show hosts as time marches on?

Another thought on models that will evolve. One is the epic model, where the source doesn't matter but how people view it will. The second model is where blogs become nothing, its the foundation, part of the web, part of the fabric. The third model that will evolve is that blogs could be entirely changed, whether its audio, video or someone's pure thoughts. Blogs evolve on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. To believe that they're going to stay the same is very naive.

Tom has such a strong British accent and style; every time he responds or makes a comment, I find myself smiling. It makes me miss my life in London that now feels like it never happened it was so long ago.

On models and how it will play out, "that's proprietary information" says Tom and the audience laughs.
"The technology that enables blogging is the fascinating thing. The technology behind it will change the media completely. It doesn't cost me anything to blog except for the cost of hosting it Everything is built on an open source platform. At the Financial Times, the costs to produce my story were significant. How will the small community papers compete with the growing number of news sources. Even News.com has publishing systems they have to support and data centers. It's expenisve."

Heath responds, "I don't think blogs are going to kill traditional media empires. Blogging is just another way to communicate. The barriers to entry have certainly increased. More people can read more people's opinions and more often. Having said that, the trusted and respected voices will still be there, on the web, or in the traditional media. There will be more trusted tribal voices that will arise."

He continues, "If you look at the Economist, there are no bylines. You don't know who the writers are. You read the Economist because the writing is so good. It also has a brand that you trust and that's part of the reason you go back for more. You will read other people based on the fact that someone you trust reads their blog or their media source. Worthwhile is a good example. Do you read it because that Halley and David's voices are represented there?"

This was really one of the better sessions, not just because of the panelists' viewpoints but because of the interactive discussion that followed the panel - live through questions and in the hallways over coffee.