Jeff MacIntyre
Blogging relationship with the media.
The media eventually has to cite sources that are online.
Interesting to watch blogger journalists that fit into what an amateur/grass-roots journalist is.
Media is still trying to figure out what to do with it. But bloggers in journalism are just a small part of the changes happening online.

Hossein Derakhshan
Iranian born, moved to Canada 5 years ago, got his Canadian citizenship 2 weeks ago.
About 10% of Iranian internet users have weblogs in Persian (about 70,000). No other country has this many bloggers. The impact of these weblogs is beyond journalistic aspects. Describes this with 3 metaphors:
Blogs in Iran are windows to the Iranian society for the outside world. Iranians who blog are more open than the previous generations. They are open with their comments, women are part of this. Very different to what it was 25 years ago.
Blogs are working as bridges, connecting different parts of the society. Because of change islands have been created and blogs are helping bridge these islands. Between genders, generations, politicians and population. A very important connection is between people who live in Iran and those who have left the country.
Blogs are funtioning as Cafes. Free public spaces where people can talk about important political issues: Nuclear power, US relations, etc. that are not mentioned in normal media due to government censorship.

Stowe Boyd
Get Real
Corante: about 75 contributors, 35 blogs. 300% growth in readership since October, 500,000 a month.
Contributors are dedicated to social activism in some way or another. Trying to make changes in the world like pamphleteers and earlier journalists tried to do.
A lot of people link to what they write.
“You have to be the change you want to make in the world” -Ghandi
Marquee program that pays the bloggers to mention names of products in the blog entries. This marketing scheme has created a lot of controversy. He is participating in a debate about this, sponsored by Marquee…
Interest in social networking technology and science. If you are short in flu vaccine you don’t give it to the people at high risk, you give it to the people who are supernodes and can spread the virus to the population. He didn’t have success pushing this idea. Recently epidemologists confirmed that if they had done something like this there would not have been an epidemic.
A person with a concern that might appear small can make an impact if she decides to keep talking about it and not shut up about it. It is OK to have a string emotional bias on things that are important to you. Drop the myth of objectivity. (This is in the context of activism).

Sean Holman
Editor of Public Eye Online covers politics in BC. Started about 2 years ago. Managed to prompt resignation of some people. Has effected change.
Blogging in Canada today is not about journalism, it is about opinion and commentary. This is because it is easier. It is harder to find new information for your readers, which is a findamental aspect of journalism. And canadian bloggers have not done a good job.
Only one success story during the elections. In a message board called Free Dominion. A member disected an ad and found a subliminal message in it. The story got picked up by a news aggregator and then made it to the national media. This type of success story is rare in Canada.
It is easier for American bloggers. They have a richer media environment. More networks, more magazines, more newspapers. Huge number of people talking which makes it easier for bloggers to find things to disect. Media in Canada is not very diverse. Maybe if we paid attention to politicians they will start saying intersting things.

Stowe Boyd: Bloggers are the early warning system in the US. Media people monitor RSS feeds to find news. Before it used to be the opposite, i.e. the first review of a product would come from big media. Media is going through a transformation, the dialog is changing. But this hasn’t happened so much in Canada.

Q. What prevents journalists from making our own Canadian story interesting to us.
A. A lot of it has to do with the way the political system in Canada functions. Dominated by party systems, individual politicians vote as a block. Limited resources are put into political coverage so journalists will focus on the 2 or 3 major stories.
The level of media concentration does not inspire deeper commentary.

It is harder for somone to find information and devote time to find this information, unless they work on this fulltime.

Audience: What Canadians find interesting is not the same as what Americans find interesing. Culture is different, populations are different. TYou cannot easily compare both countries.

Q. How political are the blogs in Iran?
A. They are getting more political. But mainly they are written by young people who are not as political as the older generations. But now the upcoming election and possible US attack, the political content as increased.

It is essential to have a blogosphere in Canada that brings more new information.

Every hour the people spend on the internet leads to an hour less on TV. (ed. did I get this right?)

Coverage of weblogs in Canadian media is very small. But in Iran you can find media embracing weblogs. Canadian media needs to give more visibility to weblogs, but there has to be something to make visible.