I came across an interesting vlog this afternoon — Alive in Baghdad.

Through this site a team of Americans and Iraqis post a weekly video entry about life in Iraq from the perspective of a normal citizen.  In one video a man describes how he was tortured while another presents challenges at a girls school in Baghdad.

The site's staffers hope to use the compelling storytelling of ordinary Iraqis "to counter the sound-bite driven, 'Live From' news model,"  the Internet has enabled this project and many others to provide news, information, and opinions. 

Vlogs like this are either an asset or competitor to mainstream media; hopefully, news organizations will harness such productions by either partnering or acknowledging such work. 

However, the challenge is to sort through all the content on the web to find the most relevant.