The Province Headquarters

Originally uploaded by paradigm4.

While checking out our incoming links yesterday I noticed one from The Province [vp] which linked to my Spice Girls review [mbv]. My parents read The Province so I tend to read it second hand whenever I go over to their place, but after trashing their web efforts last year [mbv] I figured that I should give some credit to them for venturing a little more onto the web.

One of the things I really like about their blogging effort [vp] is that it seems they’re going for a behind the scenes view of the paper instead of just using it to promote their product (the print version of the newspaper). One of the problems that people have with journalism that it’s often like they seem to be speaking as the voice of authority and objective truth, when that’s often not the case. People feel that The Province believes this, or thinks that, when really it’s a collection of people who believe all sorts of other things.

Remember USA Today is the only hive-mind newspaper in North America right now. (I know the scary office building pictured is throwing you off but trust me, they’re most likely real people).

So pulling that curtain back is really an excellent use of blogs at a publication like The Province. The allure of “citizen journalism” or whatever you want to call it, versus the mainstream media, is that a blogger is someone you can say “Hey that person is just like me”. Journalists are people to, though if my experience is any indication they tend to drink more and own shittier cars than you do.