Conference discusses the credibility of blogs

Seeking to "bring together a select group of thoughtful bloggers and journalists", at Harvard today opened a two-day, by-invitation only, Blogging, Journalism and Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground conference.

Held at the Kennedy School of Government, the conference was an initiative of the American Library Association's, Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

"One of the problems [with blogs]," said Dan Gillmor of Grassroots Media Inc., "is that any random website can look as good as any other website. We're going to be working this through for a long time. We're going to have to tell people, be skeptical."

Addressing the question of credibility, both in mainstream media and in the new media self-publishing "blogosphere", is one of the goals of the conference. The rapid transformation of the blogging media, its acceptance and repudiation as a form of journalism, is also a topic slated for discussion.

Corporate media has flirted with, disputed, and been directly affected by, bloggers. Future possible interactions between the new, blogging media, and mainstream media, provide topics for discussion.

Attendees and speakers included both established and new media names, academics and professionals, and amateurs. Topics covered ranged from jargon and terminology, through business models, and on to more esoteric subjects like "podcasting" and "vlogging".

UPDATE: The conference wound up with a session covering issues identified during the conference and an open session of free-ranging discussion.