Finding Ways To Increase Freedom Of Expression While Controlling Chaos: Collaborative Weblogs

"Web logs, the online daily journals that link to and comment on everything from
pornography to the war in Iraq, are often compared by their boosters to the printing press and upheld as the salvation of democracy in general and journalism in particular. Millions produce them, millions read them, and the mainstream media is gradually incorporating them as the reputation of "weblogs" as a source of news rises in stature. ...In the few years since blogging software made it possible for almost anyone with access to a computer - regardless of technical ability - to set up a website on a shoestring budget, the medium has evolved beyond a fad. As the influence and usage of weblogs grows in the field of journalism, it becomes increasingly important to study the structure and content of this medium. This paper explores a relatively unorthodox variation on the blogging concept - the group weblog. Some observers consider these group weblogs to be a shift in journalism from a centralized and top-down publication process to a more horizontal model, where the boundaries between producers and audience blur into one. The advances made by weblogs in this area, if adapted by the traditional media, offer the potential to include more perspectives and ultimately provide more information. Increased interactivity also could impact the quality of this information by increasing the power of the audience to challenge facts and catch errors. Expanding this horizontal model internationally could do the same, while also
allowing for more cross-border journalistic collaboration, providing leads for
international stories, and adding unfiltered versions of international events from incountry sources." (Acrobat PDF 33 pages)