The mission of the j-blog: recapturing journalistic authority

Drawing from normative journalism theory, this textual analysis argues that mainstream journalism weblogs are now occupying a role serving to reify traditional norms even as the j-bloggers shift those standard values. When journalists blog, they engage in postmodern reporting and writing even as they are attempting to reclaim journalism authority online. The j-blog has already begun to evolve traditional notions of the mainstream press. Readers and other non-journalists help craft the story. News format changes. Ultimately, this evolution will affect what we know as the ‘truth ’ about our society and ourselves, what we mean by ‘community’, and how we understand reality. K E Y W O R D S authority blog form internet journalism narrative news postmodern A cross between a column, a news story and a journal, the journalist’s weblog (or j-blog) has started to serve as daily news in the mainstream online press. The creators of blogs contend the Web is a perfect place to display short-form reporting, short-form analysis and short-form writing (Dube, 2004) – perfect t