For my part, personal journalism and/or weblogging has expanded and enriched my media environment, and in doing so has radically changed my expectations of that whole terrain. At one time there was a particular flow: CNN to network documentary and commentary to daily newspaper think pieces to magazine coverage. Or something like that. With the rise of tools that enable individual online publishing, my expectations from magazines and “thinkier” newspapers has changed. I can get a vast range of perspectives from across the waterfront on weblogs, and almost immediately.
So on the front end of a crisis, I rely on both TV and weblogs – “fact” and opinion, right up front. And I expect the print media – daily, weekly, and monthly – to take into account not only that I have the facts already, but that I also have access to a variety of (informed and not) opinions already – something for which they have traditionally been the main source.
