« previous post  |  next post »

Weblogs as journalism

March 12, 2003

Categories: The Web

Tags: megnut

permanent link to this entry

Meg Hourihan posted this today: Weblog as journalism and I was excited to see commentary by one of the minds behind the Lafayette Project, about how weblogs could really serve a purpose in journalism. Instead she used her journalistic qualities to report on breaking news. While I was disappointed not to hear more I am excited about her project and how it could change the way people view both the media and weblogs.

When I first heard the ideas behind the Lafayette Project described to me, my first inclination was to point to sites like BlogDex, Technorati, and DayPop and say "it's been done", however I think there could be bigger things in the work for this project. While I have no real inside information of this project I do hope it brings us down some of the following paths:

  • Provide an aggregate look at the "hottest" weblog topics in a variety of categories

  • Allows users to see data associated with all weblogs being "scraped" so that global viewpoints can be ascertained

  • Provide information in the form of reports of meaningful information back to the producers of weblogs included in the project

  • Hope it adds something unique and new to the weblog and media scenes, not just remixes of the top weblog lists we have all seen

    • This is a topic I am very interested in as it pertains to our industry, and thus my vocation, and one of my favorite avocations, weblogging. I hope to make weekly posts about this and related topics as I get more time to sort out my thoughts and ideas (i.e. after my house is done).


    trackback