Lisa Hrabluk

If you’re interested in New Brunswick politics strangely fascinated by New Brunswick’s oddly old-fashioned political culture check out Jacques Poitras’ and Dan McHardie’s commentaries on the CBC New Brunswick political blog, Spinreduxit.

I know, weird name. It’s a play on the Province of New Brunswick’s motto, Spem Reduxit, Latin for ‘Hope Restored’.

They’ve been blogging for a couple of months now on the goings on in the Legislative Assembly and it is a fun little read. A couple of weeks ago they started what I think will be weekly audio podcasts.

The blog along with the pair’s individual Twitter posts – here’s where you’ll find Jacques and Dan in the Twittersphere – and CBC NB’s twitter feed (maintained by Dan) have become my daily source of New Brunswick political news.

The guys have got a good thing started here. I hope the CBC continues to build on the talents of individual journalists by allowing more of them to stretch their wings online – including allowing them to offer an opinion or two.

I think if media organizations are going to make the jump from old to new media they are going to have to redefine the role of journalists. News gathering is the baseline these days and offering a glorified headline service won’t get an audience. That’s the old media model.

In the land of bloggers and tweeters, those who can offer strong analysis and context will be the ones to gather and hold an audience.

Just about anyone with an Internet connection can answer the first four W5 questions – who, what, when and where.

The real money – and influence – is in being able to answer ‘Why’.