If you don't trust the media, do it yourself

Two apparently unrelated topics that have ranked high on blog indexes in the last week may have a significant bearing on the way news is gathered and consumed in the future.

First, a comprehensive study led by UCLA political science researchers claims to confirm a liberal bias among most mainstream news outlets and will be published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Second, blogger Dan Gilmor wrote that he will be "putting together a non-profit Center for Citizen Media," which will focus on grassroots journalism.

Combined, the two developments speak to some fundamental changes in the way the public views news and other mass information: People have grown increasingly mistrustful of U.S. media organizations' historical claims of objectivity (long ridiculed by European journalists as impossible), and many citizens are willing to take on reporting responsibilities of their own through blogs, wikis, social networks or other online vehicles.

Many hope that...