A WIRED NEWS article here explores the question of Man vs. Machine in Newsreader War. Which will eventually rule in selecting news story rank for publication as the blogosphere comes — let’s suppose — to dominate news media? Here is is some of the flavor as the article presents the two sides of that question:

“I want Tailrank to be The New York Times of the blogosphere, and it will tell you what’s going on that day in the world and on the internet,” [Kevin] Burton said.

But he also sees Tailrank as a way to get better information to the people.

“For me personally the news in this country really needs a correction to get better news and a better distribution of information,” Burton said. “I do believe we need to replace the mainstream media with better alternatives.”

In that quest, Tailrank has plenty of company. Findory, NewsVine, Memeorandum, and Megite, among others, are also trying to find various ways to trick computers into being editors.

On the humanity side of the man-machine wars, Digg uses a simpler method to find cool stories: humans clicking mouse buttons.

Digg users submit technology stories and then others can vote those picks up, down or simply lame. It’s not personalized, but Digg users are fast to find new stories.

So far Digg is limited to technology news, but according to CEO Adelson, the company will be expanding to other “sections of the newspaper soon” — and it just might take on Google News as well.