....''The mainstream media will run a story saying a bunch of people protested and quote them,'' said Reynolds, the law professor. ''I can take the quote and pick it apart and say it doesn't mean anything.''

....A Weblog's readership is typically measured in the dozens or hundreds, usually friends, families, colleagues or other Webloggers. But since Sept. 11, many Weblogs [have] reported several times their normal readership.

''Some news sites started to provide links to blogs related to the attacks, and a whole new audience has been created for them,'' said Steve Jones, a communications professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Almost unbroken since September 11, a steady stream of urgent news relating to the attacks and their complex aftermath has given the blogs an electric urgency: a compelling raison d'être that has driven bloggers, their readers, and perhaps soon, the mass media into a new form of interactive journalism, both intensely personal and utterly public.