In new era of reporting, blogs take a seat at the media table: Some blogs have embraced a role of influencing traditional media coverage. A prominent blogger recently proposed that conservatives should scrutinize the Star Tribune in a bloggish tactic called "swarming," which is what happened to Rather after his Bush National Guard story.
"The moment when Dan Rather and CBS were forced to back off that story was considered a high watermark for the impact of blogging," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. [...]
But blogs do provide a potential end run around the traditional "gatekeeper" role of professional journalists.
Before the Internet, if someone had information he or she wanted to share with a wider public, there were few options other than to get a newspaper, TV or radio reporter to do a story.
But bloggers can "construct their own alternative version of what's interesting and important," Rainie said. They can share information with an audience that, while still smaller than audiences for traditional journalism, is sizeable.
And the blogosphere can generate so much buzz about story that it gets adopted by the mainstream media.
