http://tiny.cc/aT8hy

"What is also clear, most obviously in peer to peer blogging, is that people are engaged with each other as never before. Without any institutional or corporate coaxing, people are forming cyber communities in which they converse endlessly about their interests.

I say this as a preliminary to explaining why journalists, especially print veterans like me, are so suspicious of bloggers. We have spent our lives dominating conversations."

Many journalists some very senior do read blogs as they are good sources for stories and ideas.

As a matter of Copyright and Fair Use - all set down in law - sources of information should be acknowledged.

Sadly interviews are sometimes far more wide ranging than can be included. I spoke to a few extra people for my recent story on kitchen gadgets and left Ellie out as the editor though her kimchi fridge was a bit specialist. But I did email her and explain it. I probably speak to ten people a week who i don't mention at that time in print but will when I can.

Personally I always try and acknowledge a blog when it is a source and this journalist should have.

Obviously these newspaper sections are influential but I think we should just get on with it. we are proving to be a legitimate new medium who can cater to niche audiences and draw on far more diverse experiences than a newspaper can.

Perhaps we should look to putting together an online magazine?
More importantly, when did I become so reasonable?

It's certainly annoying when blog content is used to flesh out journos' work. Worse still when editorial teams deliberately erase the existence of blogs from work which is open about its inputs.

It annoys me that many paid journos trawl through the blogs for info then use it un-credited.

In tasting Australia next year, I have been told that food blogging will feature more prominantly which is encouraging.

Good to have your feedback, JSL. It's a very strange relationship isn't it, regardless of whether my source was reliable re censorship. In the end, I care far less about being excised from a story than about the much more serious issue of information control.

Speaking as someone with a toe in both camps I find it strange that CAJ (computer-assisted journalism) is the new norm yet the blog is still a dirty word. Budgets and deadlines are tight and hacks are often forced to do their research via phone and modem instead of legging it.

I was at a dinner last night with some media and I mentioned I had a food blog. By the looks on their faces you would have thought I'd said I'd just shat myself.

I'm sorry your piece was cut, Duncan. It bites when that happens. And I think it's a load of bollocks that bloggers were used for their wisdom and then viewed as too unreliable a source to quote, if that was truly the case.

Jen

[To clarify: no piece of mine was cut. That's not what this article is about.]

I was email-interviewed by the author for this article. Her exact question on the email was:

"I've been asked to write a story on macaroons and whether they are causing a buzz in the blogosphere. Have you detected this and do you think they could become the new cupcake?"

I replied and actually pointed her to your blog and to Tartlette. She asked if she could phone me as well, but I was too busy that day.

I've just spent some time reading through the links in your post - about Out of the Frying Pan, Stephanie Wood, Bloggers vs Professional Writers etc. Very interesting stuff.

I thought it was odd that the author of that article asked me about macarons, when I'd only done 3 short posts on them, and other bloggers (yourself especially) had written much many more posts including recipes, different varieties and detailed technical information.

If that policy is true (i.e. that we bloggers are those who must not be named), then it is very hypocritical and lazy of an Epicure writer to be interviewing us for information, rather than doing their own independent research. Duh - it's called Google. Interviews with Boillon and Vassenaut aside, I don't think that macaron article had any information in it that couldn't have been gleaned from a simple search.

xox Sarah