I spent part of my weekend learning how to blog. About time, you might say.

N.C. A&T State University, with The Greensboro News & Record, hosted the conference, called ConvergeSouth, to explore blogging frontiers and examine the intersection between journalism and blogging. My N&O colleague, Karen Mann, blogged to you about it earlier. The conference attracted about 300 folks, including some of the national biggies in the blogosphere. The News & Record has received national attention for its early and aggressive forays into blogging as journalism.

(Note: I'm since informed that other sponsors of the day were: The Tannenbaum-Sternberger Foundation; the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation; Jefferson-Pilot Financial; Ed Cone - Sue Polinsky, TechTriad Inc.; Al Barnett Jr., Scott Stringfellow; Carolinanet - Symetri Corp.; Lauren Polinsky, Media Design; Audio & Light Event Production; Community Foundation, City of Greensboro.)

Most interesting discussion the day I was there was on the issues of trust and ethics. Remember, this was largely a blogger audience, but there was a lot of antagonism toward the "mainstream media" and particularly a conviction among some that blogger journalists were more trustworthy and have higher standards than newspapers. Jay Rosen, a press critic based at New York University who writes a weblog about the press. says the public distrusts the "filter" role of the press -- where we condense, summarize and edit information before serving it up to you. Readers' direct access to the Internet - to the sources of information that we use, and to alternative reporting voices -- means they don't have to accept the version of truth in newspaper stories.

"Increasingly, I think journalists are going to have to tell us, okay if you filter stories to get us the truth, how did you do that? Journalists aren't used to that. They're used to being the filter from God, but people don't accept that anymore."

Rosen claims higher ethical standards for himself and "the best bloggers," compared to newspapers and the mainstream media. He doesn't, for instance, use anonymous sources, he links to his sources of information, he's quicker to make corrections and he gives readers instant access through the comment function.

His and other speakers' comments prompted spirited, sometimes angry, discussion among participants. I came away feeling that we don't know where we're going with blogging and online journalism in general, but it's clearly a different world in which newspapers are just feeling their way. I liked this comment from News & Record staffer Lex Alexander, who is leading the blogging charge at that paper, on the transition going on at newspapers. "What we're trying to do is to change from a primarily print news operation with an online appendage to a primarily online operation with a print appendage."

And from outside the newspaper, here's an interesting perspective from a lifelong Greensboro resident named Billy Jones, who says blogging has given him a new appreciation for his newspaper: "What they have done for me is change my outlook on my local paper. They're no longer the big building downtown that spits out a newspaper every day. They're people. It's given me a lot of insight into what's going on in there. It's made The News & Record more real and tangible, like they never were before."

10/10/05 at 16:53
Thanks for coming! I enjoyed what you had to say, as well.

10/15/05 at 21:59
Wow Ted, did I really say that? And to think, all my life I've felt as if no one listens to me. Thanks for listening and thanks for your clear view. It will serve you and your paper well. -Billy Jones