TALKING DEMOCRATICALLY

"Editors provide a service to writers and readers through clear, lively presentation of information and the circulation of important ideas. But as the distribution of news and comment speeds up and diversifies, unmediated online communication between engaged “peers” is taking a new role in invigorating democratic exchange.

Direct communication is raising afresh questions of broadcast and reception that have, in a sense, been suppressed or at least kept in the background by the press’s central control of reporting and comment.

Blogs are an obvious recent landmark in this revolution".