Off The Farm

This is off the subject of sustainable agriculture, but rather a continuation of Tuesday night's discussion about bloggers and blogging. Charlie Madigan is a Chicago Tribune senior correspondent who also blogs on the Tribune website as "The Rambling Gleaner." When you reach his link, scroll down to his February 14th posting, "Bloggers from hell -- or heaven sent?" As a veteran reporter with over 35 years of experience, Madigan reflects on truth, ethics and the role of blogging as the new medium in journalism. He strikes a comparison of blogging to American journalism in the 19th and early 20th Centuries - a volatile, emotional period until the dust settled. "The difference" he writes, "is that, in those eras, it took decades before media became self-referential enough to develop ethics and standards and journalism schools and thoughtful journals that would deconstruct every aspect of this messy business. Because the medium of blogging is speed-of-light stuff, we have become self-reverential and obsessive about what happens well ahead of the historical curve." Madigan thinks it's important to keep asking the question: "What does this all mean?" At the same time he cautions us to reserve judgement while this new medium sorts itself out. "What new media gets to do now is exactly what old media got to do back when it was new media, which is work out how it is going to be."