Blogs as news sources

Ryan Pitts, of the Spokane Spokesman-Review, summarizes the key findings of a newspaper industry survey on what print readers think of blogs. Surprisingly, about 20 percent of newspaper readers polled said they read blogs, about twice the penetration of overall U.S. Net users, according to Pew.

Interesting, readers say that it's the very messiness of discourse in the blogosphere that makes it a credible news source for them:

Readers who find blogs important say the online writers discuss stories mainstream journalists ignore, and are eager to question the decisions news networks make. They recognize the fallibilities that go along with blogging, but say those drawbacks are balanced out by openness, interactivity, and a communal nature that helps honesty rise to the top.

"If someone posts something that is inaccurate or incorrect, hundreds of people will correct them -- and the good ones acknowledge any mistakes made," said Megan Casto, of Olympia, Wash.

Readers get a greater overall view of the news, said Michael Hodges of Nashua, N.H., because each blogger speaks in the context of one big conversation. "In the aggregate, bloggers are much more balanced because they instantly call one another on bias, slant, errors in logic, and inadequate information. It's a network effect that is better than the mainstream 'networks.'"