Djelloul Marbrook

Most of us don’t go to a restaurant just because the cuisine is good. We go because we like the help. We look forward to seeing them. We like to think they look forward to seeing us. But this has never been the case
in journalism. Until now.

News has always been a bought and paid-for product. There has never been any interaction between the reader and the writer. Even when we watch familiar faces on television we know they’re putting on a show. But the intimacy of the blogosphere is not unlike your favorite cafe. Young journalists serve internships and job probations. If they’re lucky, seasoned veterans will take them in hand. If they’re smart, they’ll listen. But now you can get a sense of journalists at work in the blogosphere. Take Dan Baum’s running web log from New Orleans for The New Yorker magazine. If you read it carefully you’ll get a sense of what it’s like to be a reporter at work. I record a weekly podcast for The Student Operated Press. It’s called Hot Copy, and this week’s subject, Looking Over the Shoulder of a World-Class Reporter, is about Dan’s work.