Blogs as media

Blogs aren’t newspapers and they can’t replace newspapers. But blogs sort the content of many newspapers and other media outlets, like an editor, giving an edited view (with commentary) on the news (which itself is reported and published elsewhere). Unless a blog is reporting news, it’s just linking to another news media outlet.

You can start a blog on any topic and as long as you have the dedication to keep up with the news on that topic and keep linking it, working at it constantly, obsessively, which is not the same as reporting on a topic (Matt Drudge edits the news, by linking to stories he likes with titles he writes, but for the most part he isn’t a reporter himself), you can eventually attract enough insider info and tips to begin breaking news stories (rarely, Drudge), and certainly being among the first to link to a particular story that is reported and broken elsewhere.

Brian Stelter made a name for himself while a 20-year-old college kid by running the TVNewser blog at Mediabistro.com, covering the network and cable news biz. His story today.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2006-07-09-media-mix_x.htm">as reported in USA Today (Jul 10 2006). He eventually broke more news instead of linking to others and today the TVNewser blog is mostly original Mediabistro content, or links to other parts of their site.

For further reference