Note: Originally Posted by Jeff Lee at The Vancouver Sun on November 24th, 2008. Re-posted here on: July 15, 2009.

Vancouver Sun reporter, Jeff Lee, considered the media’s role in the Olympics and highlights Dave Olson’s open letter to VANOC as an example of the changing environment.

So it was a bit surprising to discover that the Vancouver Organizing Committee seems reluctant to include some types of online reporters in its planning for the 2010 Games. On Thursday Vanoc was asked in an open letter from Dave Olson, an online writer with Raincity Studios, to allow some of his colleagues to attend the World Press Briefing.
They didn’t get an answer. But on Sunday, Renee Smith-Valade, a.spokeswoman for Vanoc, sent the following hopeful email to me.

“Undountedly online media and the Internet as a news source and foum for discourse continues to grow phenominally. That’s why we have spent considerable resources to make our website our number one source of information and why we will continue to look for ways to make it a platform for discussion as well as information and purchasing. We welcome online media interest from all sources and were encouraged to see online media representatives registered for the recent World Press Briefing.

Please follow this link to read the rest of the article and the enlightening discussion in the Vancouver Sun comments.