Hugh McLeod, Loren Feldman, Pete Cashmore and Elisabeth Winkler from the audience got on stage to answer questions from the audience and the live backchannel (Twitter).

The first question from Rick Slagter is whether “blogging is the rescue of slow journalism.”

Loren Feldman is very explicit about comparing bloggers to journalists: “Bloggers aren’t journalists. You’re just a bunch of guys sitting in your livingroom, writing things.” Pete Cashmore comes to the defense of bloggers when he jokes that “Sometimes we dress up and we wear pajamas.” Cashmore describes the current media landscape as an ecosystem where bloggers and journalists compliment each other.

Winkler sees the overlap between journalism and blogging in the connections between opinion and fact. However, a fact needs a context because everyone has an agenda and the major media aren’t very clear about their agenda. She sees blogging as a little more transparent.

Cashmore compares the discussion to the endless discussion that is still going on surrounding the term “web2.0″ We spend a lot of time and posts on trying to define it which lead to endless discussion. The whole journalism versus bloggers debate depends on how you define journalism. Paul Bradshow from the Online Journalism Blog enters the debate by rightfully stating that the “is blogging journalism?” is an old question and that we need more challenging questions.

The best part of the discussion seems to be happening on Twitter where Wilbert Baan (Interaction Designer of the Volkskrant newspaper website) replies to Paul Bradshaw’s statement with an insightful comment:

I think the distinction between the medium and practice of blogging is an important one, especially in relation to journalism.