Welcome to the Blogosphere - PBS

TV Documentary by PBS

URL = http://www.pbs.org/wnet/mediamatters/303/blogs.html

"Cyberspace's most dynamic journalistic innovation may be the "blog" or "Web log" -- an electronic diary of personal commentary. The "Blogosphere" is expanding so rapidly (estimates of the number of American bloggers range from 200,000 to 500,000) that MSNBC.com just replaced its highly successful discussion boards and their 600,000 posts per day with "Weblog Central." It posts its own blogs and provides a weekly list of links called "Best of Blogs.

Glenn Reynolds, a law professor and founder of "instapundit.com," a blog and blogging gateway that attracts up to 100,000 visitors a day, claims that, with blogs, "the First Amendment is finally living up to its promise on the Internet." Usually one-person operations, blogs take on every imaginable subject, from gardening and movies to, more typically, commentary on the day's news and how it is reported. These independent media critics are regularly challenging the reporting of some of the country's leading newspapers, including THE NEW YORK TIMES.

Mainstream journalists are beginning to recognize the medium's influence and potential. Howard Kurtz, media critic for THE WASHINGTON POST, has written that "bloggers are busting chops, big time." (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/mediamatters/303/blogs.html)