Blogging, Journalism & Credibility

I'm not sure what will become of this site afterwards, but Harvard University Law School, in conjunction with the American Library Association's Office of Information Technology and others, are sponsoring a conference that starts today called "Blogging, Journalism & Credibility".

Our shared motivation for convening such a conference is our conviction that the world of journalism is being transformed by blogging, and that - similarly - the blogosphere is evolving and being transformed in the process. There can be no question that the phenomenon of blogging, especially blogs focused on politics and public affairs, has changed the way information becomes front page news. The examples of Trent Lott, the Swiftboat allegations and the disputed CBS documents come immediately to mind. In each of these cases, bloggers shaped the news, and the influence of blogging will only increase.

To both journalism and blogging, credibility is essential. What are the areas of common ground shared by these very different approaches to handling news and information? Can journalists who also blog do their work without conflicting standards? Might bloggers adopt standards and a transparency that will elevate their credibility? Our purpose is to bring together a small group of smart and thoughtful people to ponder these and other related issues, which will result in a published report and - we hope - will mark the beginning of an on-going and very important dialogue.

del.icio.us is providing a blogmark feed of relevant blogmarks. All sessions are being webcast live and will be archived on the website.

Posted by Tom on January 21, 2005