Relative Value – What’s Academically More Value? A Blog Post Or A Monograph?

“Which ultimately does more good–an article or monograph that is read by 20 or 30 people in a very narrow field, or a blog post on a topic of interest to many (such as grading standards or tenure requirements) that is read by 200,000? What if the post spurs hundreds of comments, is debated publicly in faculty lounges and classrooms, and gets picked up by newspapers and Web sites across the country–in other words, it helps to shape the national debate over some hot-button issue? What is it worth then?”