Blogs are the future of news?

Come on in, the blogging's wonderful
From Sunday Times - 15/05/2005
Arianna Huffington

Blogs are the future of news, says Arianna Huffington, who is setting up 'a cultured conversation' on the web

I've been a fan -and an advocate -of the fast-moving blogosphere ever since bloggers started leaking juicy American political stories that wouldn't be touched by the chummy DC press corps. Simply put, blogs are the greatest breakthrough in popular journalism since Tom Paine (the original, not TomPaine.com, which is also great).

Lots of good stories get covered by newspapers and TV but, too often, there's no follow-up. Reporters for the big media outlets are always moving on to the next hot get. So, in America, having 500 channels doesn't mean we get 500 times the examination and investigation of worthy news stories. It means we get the same inch-deep, narrow conventional-wisdom wrap-ups repeated 500 times.

Paradoxically, in these days of instant communication and 24-hour news channels, it's actually easier to miss information. That's why we need stories to be covered, re-covered and covered again, with each person adding something to the last person's coverage -until they filter up enough to become part of the cultural bloodstream.

Almost every blogger works alone, but it's their collective effort that makes them so effective. They share their work freely and, because blogs are ongoing and hourly, bloggers will often start with a small story, or a piece of one -a contradictory quote, an unearthed document, a detail that doesn't add up.

Then there is the open nature of the form -the links, the research made visible, the democratic back and forth, the open archives, the big professorial messiness of it all. It reminds me of my schoolgirl days when providing the right answer wasn't enough for our teachers -they demanded that we "show our work". Bloggers definitely show their work. It's why you don't just read blogs, you experience them. You engage with them.

As someone who has spent her adult life toiling in the worlds of book and newspaper column-writing, where the Aristotelian verities of beginning/middle/end are the Rosetta stone of structure and form, it has been utterly liberating to find a place where the random thought is honoured. Where a zippy one-off is enough to spark a flurry of impassioned replies. And where reaching the climax too quickly -or too slowly -is okay.

All of which has made the blogosphere the most vital news source in our country - and has made me decide to take a flying leap into it with The Huffington Post. Our idea is to combine a breaking news section with an innovative group blog where some of this country's most creative minds can weigh in on topics great and small, political and cultural, important or just plain entertaining.

Ever since college I have enjoyed facilitating interesting conversations, around dinner tables, or at book parties, or on hikes with disparate groups of friends.

With The Huffington Post we're taking those conversations -about politics and books and art and music and food and sex -and bringing them into cyberspace, which is where so many of us spend so much of our time these days.

Also unlike the gatherings of old -where the conversations, bons mots and repartee unleashed would evaporate as soon as the guests went home -the thoughts, jokes, ideas, photos, videos and insights being shared on The Huffington Post are archived, open to be reviewed, revisited, shared, linked to, and commented on by everyone.

This week you might come in for David Mamet instantly "reviewing" theatre critic John Simon's departure at New York Magazine: "In his departure he accomplishes that which during his tenure eluded him: he has finally done something for the American theatre." You can see why he might feel this way, because we link to Simon's bare-knuckled review last week of Mamet's revival of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Then there's Quincy Jones with an entirely different take on the Michael Jackson case.

Blogs are only just catching on in Britain but, believe me, they'll change your life.

*www.huffingtonpost.com

Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Limited

Date: 15/05/2005