New York Review of Books

The News About the Internet

Michael Massing provides some thoughtful commentary, such as:

The blogosphere, by contrast, has proven especially attractive to those who, despite having specialized knowledge about a subject, have little access to the nation's Op-Ed pages.

Massing notes that blogging, albeit subject to "polemical excesses" among other issues moves us from journalism's traditionally two-sided (at best) framework, to a multi-faceted discussion. At stake is who will dominate such discussions, and why.

This would be a good backgrounder for Media Democracy Day (November 11, 2009).