Washington Post v New York Times pt. 2

In the "Elements of Journalism" it was noted that one of the most important things that must occur to ensure good journalism was citizen participation. Citizens should be reading the paper and responding to it. In fact, the news should be more like a conversation. So today I decided to look at how the New York Times and the Washington Post allows for readers to respond.

The first thing I noticed was that only the New York Times provided a link to allow readers to comment on an article. Even this, was only provided on some articles and often the comments will have "closed" on an article. The Washington Post did not provide any links to comment. Both sites did provide links to their respective Blogs that allowed for readers to post comments, but I was not satisfied with this. After searching with the toolbar for "letters to the editor" I was able to find both site's Letters to the Editor sections. The New York Times even provided instructions on how to send in letters. (I was able to find the same information for the Washington Post under the F.A.Q. section)

All in all, although there are many new and interesting methods of allowing citizens to participate (including a moderated discussion group) in both papers. I think the Times provided a slightly better way to allow participation for its readers.