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Ann Curry wrote an outstanding article entitled, Journalism As An Act of Faith about humanitarian reporting and the importance of caring about the stories of people journalists cover. Prior to that, I read an article about Bleacher Report's partnership with Hearst entitled, Hearst-Bleacher Report breakthrough key to future of "citizen journalist" movement. The connection? Although Curry is writing about crisis and suffering, the principles of humanitarian journalism could easily be applied to the reporting of any human endeavor. In that regard, the goal of a journalist is not merely to list facts, but to give an account of the experience of the human beings involved in the situation. The theory is that without the constraints of traditional media, citizen journalists could do a better job of incorporating that human touch in their hyper local reporting -- identifying and describing stories that matter to their lives faster than big media outlets. Of course, that requires skill and learning how to write -- either through J-school or an apprenticeship/internship -- is valuable. However, good journalism is about one's disposition relative to the subject matter. So none of this is to say either that Bleacher Report is the "best" medium to "lead the citizen journalism movement" or that random folks off the street should replace paid journalists. The point is best stated by Derek Clark of GeekPolitics.com in a recent article on citizen journalism: The old media that combine their resources with the advantages of new media will thrive. The old media that try to cling to their old methods of doing things will die." Journalists like Curry will survive because she's focused on human stories, regardless of method or medium. What will kill traditional media is a methods fetish, not citizen journalism or new media.

Sorry if this seems like I'm plugging an SBN advertiser, but Reebok is sponsoring the SBN's Cardinals site, Viva El Birdos through Tuesday's All-Star Game. As a fan of how media and advertising are evolving, this is cool, and probably not just the beginning. Reebok even has a cool promotion for those of you who can get to St. Louis: "To commemorate the all-star game Reebok will be hiding more than one hundred baseballs in downtown St. Louis. Your mission, should you choose to live in downtown St. Louis and read twitter for Reebok's brief, youth-trending hints, is to find the balls, which can be redeemed for all manners of swag: prizes range from player autographs to custom shoes, running shoes, and Reebok bats and baseball gloves, which could prove especially useful if you are inadvertently voted in as the final NL All Star. The grand prize gets you two baseballs, autographed by Reebok's coterie of NL (Lincecum, Rodriguez, Ibanez, Fielder, Cordero, Pence, Bell) and AL (Papelbon, Morneau, Beckett, Verlander, Nathan, Wakefield) All Stars."