Institutional mainstream media constraints were both an asset and a liability during the great crash, says Norwegian blogger and journalist Kristine Lowe, in a new book published this week. She argues that blogs both transformed and challenged mainstream media coverage of the credit crisis.

‘Playing Footsie with the FTSE?‘ edited by John Mair and Richard Lance Keeble, a collection of 20 articles by leading journalists and academics that asks why leading financial journalists and commentators failed to predict the biggest economic crisis in 70 years, is published this week by Abramis for £9.99.

Journalism.co.uk has featured several chapters from the book during the past month:

• Brian Caplen: ‘Mea culpa – Why we missed the crisis’
• Alex Brummer: ‘Far from scaring people, the press were providing readers with reliable information’

and today:

• Kristine Lowe: Blogging the crash – How blogs transformed mainstream media coverage of the credit crisis