e skeptical of everything I read, both on and off the Net. I am even more skeptical of Internet publications than I am of the mainstream. "Gatekeepers" aren't necessarily a bad thing. Those lessons I was taught in journalism classes about good writing, good taste, good judgment, fairness, accuracy and "objectivity" are lessons a new generation of “cyber journalists ignore at their own risk. The goal of public journalism is to create a learning type of community. A community that discusses issues, not just based on emotion, but based on facts about how things work. Switching from a traditional platform of journalistic objectivity to public journalism may not be a bad thing if we can use objectivity in our journalistic methods. It's a better standard anyway, and it can keep people honest.So we shouldn’t throw out public journalism as an approach. Investigative reporting and editing has its place. The focus given to us by public journalism can keep the rewards of investigative reporting and editing from being lost in the midst of information overload. Public journalism and investigative journalism need one another, and if we realize that we have a chance of preserving our beloved First Amendment traditions....
