Dave Winer, as quoted in a News.com interview on the impact blogs are having on journalism and how we get news:
People now get the information from each other and for each other using Web logs. There are still professional journalists writing, but a lot less. Web logs are journalism. Have they had a big impact? Absolutely. When a big story hits, I don’t necessarily trust the professional journalists to tell me what’s going on. If I can get the Web logs from the people who were actually involved, I’ll take that.
The typical news article consists of quotes from interviews and a little bit of connective stuff and some facts, or whatever. Mostly it’s quotes from people. If I can get the quotes with no middleman in between–what exactly did CNN add to all the pictures? Maybe they earned their salaries a little bit, but Web logs have become journalism, and it’s much richer. Journalism is a high calling, but it’s really no more than points of view on what’s taking place. I think the pros are going to use this tech, and they are doing it more and more.
