PressThink: amplifying the conversation

Jay Rosen has written a characteristically intelligent piece on the work Charlie Savage is doing in uncovering a "master narrative" about the relationship between the George Bush White House and the press. In it, he includes a parenthesis which I think really nails the relationship between bloggers and professional journalists:

The Master Narrative that Went Missing During the Bush Years Turns Up in Charlie Savage's Book: Why do I say bloggers vs. journalists is stupid and should be declared over? Because the two “sides” are already part of one news system. A large portion of that “huge” response he got was the blogosphere roaring its approval for the digging and synthesizing Charlie Savage did, which influenced the bureau chief to spend the manpower on more stories like that. The big response online amplifies the Globe’s voice in the national conversation, and expands the circle of people who care about the newspaper’s reporting.

Read the whole piece to get the context, but I think this image of an engaged audience of bloggers affecting the news agenda in very human ways - in this case, by influencing a newspaper bureau chief to assign resource differently - is powerful and true, in the US at least.