Colbert, Mainstream Media and the Blogosphere

So what do all of these have in common? Well, the recent Colbert Blogstorm has raised some important observations about the fragile (and sometimes volatile) relationship between the blogosphere and mainstream media.

Some say that blogs aren't news sources. It's just a "conversation" and nothing more.

While others like Bloggers Blog point out:

The New York Times is finally reporting on the growing blogstorm over Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner. This is definitely another incident where bloggers motivated the mainstream media to report on something. It is possibly proof that if bloggers can post enough on a topic the mainstream media will eventually be forced to report on it.

Whilst we bloggers have been trying to define ourselves, some of us are unfortunately looking at this in terms of black and white. The truth of it is it's what I have been saying all along -- it's a bit of both.

Clearly it is a symbiotic relationship and both organisms are feeding off each other. Like it or not, it is a "conversation" that is going on between between both media types. That might not sit well with the snobs, but nevertheless is reality.

Related links: political football