Blogs and journalists: when will the boundaries of misunderstanding disappear?

On October 4, Dan Gillmore, director of the Center for Public Media (a joint project of the Center for Internet Studies and the Society of Harvard University and the Faculty of Journalism of the University of Berkeley, California), the author of the book “We the media” (We-media: folk journalism - created by people and people).

The meeting was organized by the publication "Business Quarter". The topic of blogs was discussed at the round table: is it possible to use them as a professional tool and whether journalists need them.

After the meeting, a very active discussion ensued on the topic “Does a journalist need a blog?”.
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Here are some quotes from the discussion, opinions expressed by journalists.

The activity of journalists in blogs just out of nowhere will not take. The meaning of being present in the blogosphere appears only when it is filled with people of interest to the journalist, and not only adolescents in the pubertal period. Serious people have just started using blogs - someone trying to repel an information attack like Boris Dyakonov, someone just out of curiosity. When there are many such people, then the journalists will catch up to spud them.

Even if I go through the portal / blog to a new good respondent, I will still continue to communicate offline. And I will not make new acquaintances through the portal. Because I know the way more efficiently, not so laborious - again, offline. If the old respondents pissed me off, so I’ll call them and ask: “Who else can you talk to?” Such social networks are arranged in this old-fashioned way - no blog has dreamed of. “To build such a database online will also have to work” is an incorrect phrase. You cannot inflate a tire by blowing into the valve. Pump needed. And if you wanted to kiss, the pump does not help, lips work better.

The author of these lines also took part in the discussion, actively defending the position that blogs are necessary for a journalist and he should use them for professional purposes.

The full text of the discussion can be found here.