The strength of the early eyewitness report

Poynter Institute vice-president, author and writing guru Roy Peter Clark talks about a seminar presentation he attended by blogger Josh Benton and how he came away struck by Benton's logic on real time blogging/citizen journalism.

Benton's theory has been expressed in a somewhat clumsily titled graph, "The Benton Curve of Journalistic Interestingness," which shows the immediacy of blogging or citizen journalism captures the "spark" of the journalistic moment retaining far more "interest" than later, packaged journalism often found in newspapers which tends to standardise information.

The graph shows that later narratives of the event, written by investigative reporters or feature writers, again puts back the interest in the event.