Are Blogs a 'Parasitic' Medium?

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Are Blogs a 'Parasitic' Medium?
"Could the blogosphere survive without the reporting provided by newspapers and TV networks?" Journalists are fond of saying that blogs depend on them for news. What I observe is that newspapers are parasitic on science, research, education and technology (to name a few). Look at the stories in OLDaily, or in the blogs covered here, and you will see real people struggling with real issues. The journalists just watch and wait while other people to say things, invent things, or do things - then they move in, create their own self-appointed 'experts', and act like they own the story. What has in fact happened is that other people are now doing to journalists what journalists have always done to other people. We are taking back the stories we create in the first place. More...