In a series of letters between Jeff Jarvis and New York Times editor Bill Keller, Jarvis sums up his arguments about the relationship between traditional journalists and the new “citizen” journalists, or bloggers quite succinctly : “the rank and file of both worlds,” he writes, need to understand that “they’re colleagues, not enemies…”
That is, hard-line bloggers need to stop accusing mainstream media of being entirely obsolete, and hard-line reporters need to stop disparaging the journalistic work being done by ordinary people on the world wide web. Both sides need to come to terms with the fact that they both have their roles, each of which would be enhanced by working more cooperatively and with less suspicion/derision of the other side.
