Not “breaking news” new, but new to me: you can now talk back to Carl Bialik, who writes the entertaining Numbers Guy column for the Wall Street Journal, through a reader’s forum. Posting in the forum is limited to WSJ subscribers, but anyone can visit and read the proceedings, which include responses from Carl.
Here’s an example: the latest forum, linked to his column that ponders the question of whether the iPod shuffle mode truly plays songs randomly. The original column is here.
The idea itself is interesting, not the least because it taps into that smarter-than-me reader that Dan Gillmor identified and deepens coverage of the topic.
Should every columnist have a forum? I tend to think so, although I can make an argument against it for political columnists on the grounds that any forum could quickly degenerate from nuanced conversation that adds to the signal into partisan shouting matches that create only noise.
TAGS: COLUMNISTS, FORUMS, RETHINKING MEDIA
