David Vaina at the Online Journalism Review compares newspapers and blogs, in the search for answers to these questions:
- Which media platform uses more sources?
- Which offers a more diverse range of sources?
- And which types of sources are more prevalent in each platform?
His conclusion:
“Much of the current debate in journalism that centers around how sourcing is used in blogs concerns the issues of verification of information not reported in the mainstream press. But for now, this doesn’t appear to be their raison d’etre [I had to look this up, it means: ‘reason to exist.’] The function of blogs may be an equally important one, however, offering a more nuanced, synthesized perspective not found anywhere else on the Web.”