Professor Jay Rosen of NYU offers his paper on credibility on the web, which we asked him to write in preparation for the conference on Blogging, Journalism and Credibility this coming Friday and Saturday.  There’s a cross-post on the conference web site that allows for comments as well.

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My hope for this conference is that it will be substantive and serious,
if imperfect.  We’ll never get agreement that the right people are
in the room; many will choose to ignore the proceedings; these things
are fine.  My hope on this score is that those who disagree with
our event will take up the problem in other ways and in other spaces.

The discussion swirling around our modest event has turned personal
and, unfortunately, nasty at times in the comments section of the
conference site.  That the event has provoked strong feelings —
heat, energy, loads of comments, posts, and cross-posts — to me is
almost all to the good.   But the personal attacks on
individuals (most especially those anonymous personal attacks) involved
does not put any of us who blog in a positive light.  And the
discussion overall will only be successful if the process generates not
only heat but also light.