The future of alternative journalism
On the off chance that you haven't yet seen Matt Welch's essay for the Columbia Journalism Review, "The New Amateur Journalists Weigh In," you should. Yes, it is true that the Blogosphere already has a pretty high opinion of itself, and (as Welch admits) this article will do nothing to change that.

But his explanation holds water. Once you've read it, you'll realize not only why blogs caught on, but why it was inevitable that they, or something very much like them, would. I had a glimmer of it when I started my own page back in 1995 (I discussed it here, in an archive from 1996), but Welch has done a far better job than I did of tracing its true lineage--and hinting at things to come.