A follow to Journalists’ role when there is no gate: James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, writes in The N.Y. Times writes “The Twilight of the Information Middlemen”, about how blogs and easy access to much government data are eliminating much of the role previously filled by academic journals.
The article is not specific about the news media, but newspapers face similar flanking of the content they publish. More on this at E-Media Tidbits, Bob Stepno’s Other Journalism Weblog, and rexblog: Rex Hammock’s Weblog.