Postman Pean

Anyone who wants to seriously consider this topic -- journalism (especially television) versus blogging -- really needs to read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. I know of no other book which summarizes so succinctly the premise that television (especially "news") is detrimental to rational discourse and, ultimately, democracy.

Blogging, unlike most television news, at least has the potential to provide context and promote the rational, narrative form. In this regard it could be argued that blogging is superior to what is oxymoronically referred to as television journalism.

Amusing Ourselves to Death is but one of many excellent Neil Postman books. Technopoly provides a trenchant critique of the modern world's deification of technology and, utlimately, the failings attendant to such glorification. I'd also recommend The End of Education for its insightful identification of the problems of modern public education.