In this third and final panel, moderator David Thorburn makes an impassioned bid to refocus attention on the unique role newspapers play in society, and to cast a more skeptical eye on the merits of cyberjournalism. Newspapers organize the world on a daily basis, “create a universe that is in some sense more fundamentally unified and coherent than the atomistic universe” of the Web, and serve as “independent political observers that can stand up against and defy the demands of government.” To Thorburn, the loss of this institution would deal a serious blow to society. Can emerging digital forms of news-gathering and communications hope to offer “the kind of political and moral independence” of traditional newspapers?
Jerome Armstrong: Founder, Netroots.com
Armstrong's book website
Pablo J. Boczkowski: Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University
Boczkowski's Northwestern website
Dante Chinni: Senior Research Associate, Project for Excellence in Journalism
Chinni's PEJ profile
Recorded at MIT on October 5, 2006.
See Also: Other Programs in this Series
+ The Emergence of Citizen’s Media
+ News, Information and the Wealth of Networks
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