This is not passive news consumption. Neither is it broadcasting. The average blogger has time to surf the web, but no resources to report stories. Some bloggers will follow a news story to the end, some may lose interest after a few days. Commentary will range from the fully-formed to the random blurt and can freely mix the public and the personal.
All this represents something new: participatory media. And it matters. Not because of its resemblance to familiar institutions, but because of its differences from them. — Rebecca Blood —The revolution should not be eulogised (Guardian)
A good article, in which a committed blogger speaks intelligently to the wider world of non-bloggers. I do, however, question her estimate that an “average weblog” will be updated “perhaps a dozen times a day”. Blogs that show that much activity are very rare, indeed.
From a Guardian special report on weblogs, which I found on Scott Rettberg’s site.