Shona Ghosh

City University was recently blessed (or tarnished, depending on your viewpoint) with the frontrunners of online journalism, with Guido Fawkes, Slugger O’Toole, Turi Munthe (Demotix) and Potkin Azarmehr (a blogger for a secular Iran) all taking questions on the political blog.

Both Slugger and Guido were keen to point out they are no replacement for the mainstream media. But where Guido still saw value in newspapers to spread his political stories, Slugger seemed to think passionate bloggers might be the best source for niche information.

Guido said…

If you want to break a big story, you have to broadcast it. Sometimes I have to get a newspaper [in] and I work with a journalist to make a maximum impact. If I just did it myself, I find it gets picked up later. That’s one strategy; you do have to incorporate a broadcaster.

Mick Fealty/Slugger O’Toole said…

[We and the mainstream media] go about our business in a rather different way. Three or four years ago a Belfast news editor said, do you realise that Slugger sets the news agenda every morning? I didn’t want that kind of responsibility, but if that’s the case, that’s fine. I take an interest in stories which interest me.