As long as there are a preponderance of folks that think anyone with a laptop is a journalist, and that citizens should be putting their efforts under the auspices of newspapers (rather than keeping their own sites) there won't be much change in the world of journalism. There are big problems in corporate owned big media that aren't going to change by getting chummy with the citizenry. Letting journalists blog (thus becoming transparent) and allowing them to interact via comments may help--but are only small steps when ownership issues and content elitsm are truly considered by the reigning status quo.

Actually I was joking when I said the future of jouranlism is as a website to decode the news on the Daily Show. What I was trying to say on the panel at the conference was that the CONTENT is what we need to focus on--independent, honest, transparent content that contains verified facts and honest opinions, rather than carrying some agenda paid for by some unidentified, propraganda-motivated backer. If you get the content right, and are transparent about your mission, then the issues of what pipe and what formats you use are amusing and important from an economic point of view, but irrelevant to the definition of "journalist."