ABSTRACT
American journalism, it is safe to say, enters the twenty-first century beset on all sides. Journalists’ tenuous role as experts in determining ‘all the news that’s fit to print’ is under fire. At the same time, bloggers, online journalists, and other ordinary citizens and writers are attacking the very idea that there is any sort of journalistic expertise at all. As the editors note in the winter 2005 issue of Neiman Reports, ‘with the arrival of the internet, the ability of non-journalists to publish their words and link them with those of other like-minded scribes has forever altered the balance of power between those who control the means to publish and those who believe they have something important to say’ (Neiman Reports 2005). Empowered by new digital technologies, and emboldened by the internet, the very idea that there might be an occupational monopoly on ‘telling the news’ seems, to many observers, dubious at best.
