A friend and I were talking about blogs today, and started debating which has had more impact on journalism: cable news or blogs. We disagreed.
We weren’t talking about specific stories or events. We argued about the effect on new-gathering, ethics, and other journalistic concerns.
I won’t tell you who picked which side just yet. I want to hear what other people think. There’s a beer riding on this, so choose wisely. :)
Cable.
Cable TV...it allowed for the true 24 by 7 news coverage that has changed news coverage entirely. Blogs are now changing things a bit, but not to the same degree that TV did.
Re:
Maybe in another ten years, computers and the ’net will be as ubiquitous as TV is now. In the meantime, blogs have little influence outside a few spectucular exposures, even as those same exposures show where we are headed towards in the future.
There won’t be a huge bang either. I believe the shift will happen so gradually noone will think it a big deal when we get there – just the way “paperless” eventually won while noone was looking anymore.