Rebecca MacKinnon (Berkman Center, Havard Law School) has just released the final notes from the January conference on Blogging, Journalism and Credibility. The discussion is well worth the few hours it will take to read, digest and reflect upon the content. The final conclusion of the conference was hightlighted as follows:
Strengthening the public discourse, and strengthening democracy, is indeed the common ground shared by professional journalists, bloggers, wikipedians and others involved in the creation of grassroots media.
The conference established two important things: 1) that this common ground does indeed exist, and 2) that all are eager to work together. The goal is to create a better society and better means of giving citizens both the information they need and the forums of discourse required to hold their leaders truly accountable. Now we need to figure out how to achieve that goal. This conference has helped point us in the right direction, but the journey has only just begun.
For dedicated bloggers, this conference provides a framework for considering our blogs in a much more socially aware context. Spend the time to read the conference PDF!
-CyclingRoo-