The Quality of Discussion on the Economy in UK Political Blogs in 2008

In the early years of the twenty-first century, things look bleak for the political journalists of large newspapers-squeezed by the demands of celebrity culture, bullied by politicians and their aides, untrusted by the public and, now, displaced by a horde of amateur bloggers-or do they? This study is based upon an in-depth, comparative analysis of the quality of debate, on economic issues, in a selection of the UK's most popular, 'independent', political blogs and of their equivalents hosted by established newspaper writers and suggests a much more positive prognosis for the future of professional political journalists and, more importantly, for the public sphere, than has been commonly asserted elsewhere.