To answer this question, there is a requirement to ask: What are the divisions between blogging and journalism? If there are divisions, how do we identify what falls into either catergory? Finally, in a time of convergence, will we find a happy medium in the future where professionals will fall into neither of these areas?
Dana Blankenhorn, a business journalist with over 30 years experience covering the online world, tried to answer firstly: Is Blogging Journalism? His short answer: No! “To say that a blog is any one thing is to misunderstand what a blog is … A blog is instant publishing”. It can be so much more than an opinion or piece of journalism; it can be a “diary”, a “community”, a “picture collection” etc.
Is Blogging Journalism? (Blankenhorn) April 29 2005 -http://mooreslore.corante.com/archives/2005/04/29/is_blogging_journalism.php
Course Director of the MA in Online Journalism at Birmingham City University’s School of Media, Paul Bradshaw outlines his thoughts in a post entitled: “Stop asking me ‘Is blogging journalism?’” He states that many journalists choose to forget and overwrite the “principles and ethics” of the profession. The “explosion in blogs” is a direct result of the publics’ perception of journalists being “less trustworthy” than politicians, but that some of the best bloggers are “pricincipled and ethical journalists”!
Blogging is an excellent resource tool that will “gain more credibility through one thing: time.”
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2007/04/30/stop-asking-me-is-blogging-journalism/
Writing in April 2009, Bernard Lunn, “serial entrepreneur” and Chief Operating Officer at ReadWriteWeb argues that although some bloggers are becoming journalists, professional journalism is not dead: yet! When he makes his points, he discloses: “I do not come at this from a long career as a journalist. This is a personal, blog-style view of the journalism profession by somebody who cares about the outcome.”
He identifies that many bloggers are: “passionate experts first and journalists second. Somebody who blogs about technology could not credibly switch to politics, and vice versa. The journalism profession is adept at taking somebody from a story on a bank robbery and allocating them to a political sex scandal. Their professional skills enable journalists to be switch-hitters.”
The idea that a blogger is an enthusiast with very useful specific knowledge and skill certainly takes nothing away from it’s importance. Lunn just feels that bloggers and journalists are currently two very separate entities. He has the romantic view that, above many other things, journalists ask the probing questions, without clouding them in opinion:
Journalists have “An assumption that everyone knows more than you, and that your job is to find, cultivate, question, and listen to your sources, and then come to a view”. There is also the issue of money – but in Journalism 2.0, he is confident that they will find a “new model”.
Journalism 2.0 – Don’t Throw Out The Baby (Lunn) - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/journalism_20_dont_throw_out_the_baby.php
Dana Blankenhorn, a business journalist with over 30 years experience covering the online world, tried to answer firstly: Is Blogging Journalism? His short answer: No! “To say that a blog is any one thing is to misunderstand what a blog is … A blog is instant publishing”. It can be so much more than an opinion or piece of journalism; it can be a “diary”, a “community”, a “picture collection” etc.
Is Blogging Journalism? (Blankenhorn) April 29 2005 -http://mooreslore.corante.com/archives/2005/04/29/is_blogging_journalism.php
Course Director of the MA in Online Journalism at Birmingham City University’s School of Media, Paul Bradshaw outlines his thoughts in a post entitled: “Stop asking me ‘Is blogging journalism?’” He states that many journalists choose to forget and overwrite the “principles and ethics” of the profession. The “explosion in blogs” is a direct result of the publics’ perception of journalists being “less trustworthy” than politicians, but that some of the best bloggers are “pricincipled and ethical journalists”!
Blogging is an excellent resource tool that will “gain more credibility through one thing: time.”
http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2007/04/30/stop-asking-me-is-blogging-journalism/
Writing in April 2009, Bernard Lunn, “serial entrepreneur” and Chief Operating Officer at ReadWriteWeb argues that although some bloggers are becoming journalists, professional journalism is not dead: yet! When he makes his points, he discloses: “I do not come at this from a long career as a journalist. This is a personal, blog-style view of the journalism profession by somebody who cares about the outcome.”
He identifies that many bloggers are: “passionate experts first and journalists second. Somebody who blogs about technology could not credibly switch to politics, and vice versa. The journalism profession is adept at taking somebody from a story on a bank robbery and allocating them to a political sex scandal. Their professional skills enable journalists to be switch-hitters.”
The idea that a blogger is an enthusiast with very useful specific knowledge and skill certainly takes nothing away from it’s importance. Lunn just feels that bloggers and journalists are currently two very separate entities. He has the romantic view that, above many other things, journalists ask the probing questions, without clouding them in opinion:
Journalists have “An assumption that everyone knows more than you, and that your job is to find, cultivate, question, and listen to your sources, and then come to a view”. There is also the issue of money – but in Journalism 2.0, he is confident that they will find a “new model”.
Journalism 2.0 – Don’t Throw Out The Baby (Lunn) - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/journalism_20_dont_throw_out_the_baby.php
http://central.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/mchalemk1/2009/03/27
So if it can be identified that currently there is a definite divide between journalism and blogging, is there such thing as a professional blogger? The answer appears to be rather complex. Professional blogger, Yehuda Berlinger, says: “I didn’t really plan it, but I dreamed it.” He sees blogging as it’s own being, making no association directly with journalism. He does discuss how he was disciplined with his attitude to posting prior to making the leap from “enthusiast” to professional blogger.
The major point of interest to me in his blog post: “I turned to the professionals … Some of these are specifically about blogging, while the others are about branding. Both are key.”
Professional blogging http://jergames.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-i-became-professional-blogger.html
Branding and marketing appear to be major contributing factors in the field of blogging – I understand that to make money, this is incredibly important, but does this affect the quality of writing and compromise expert knowledge at the expense of blog traffic? Perez Hilton (perezhilton.com) is an example of this. The “professional blogger” who has made a career out of his own “celebrity” rather than his skill as a writer.
People like opinion – all traditional print media have their own stances (as publications), but is there a danger that individual bloggers spend too much time on their blog’s popularity and position than on the quality of it’s content?
Gatekeepers?
In an interview with the Online Journalism Review, Paul Andrew, journalist/author with over 30 years experience with the Seattle Times, saw an important link between traditional journalism/media and blogging: “"It's the role of institutional media to act as gatekeepers," he says, "but what you have in print publishing today is a consolidation that's inimical to the diversity that exists in everyday life. With the rise of the Internet, people don't need to be bounded by those traditional filters anymore."
Blogging as a Form of Journalism (May 2001) http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017958873.php
Convergence?
Notes taken at “The Fall & Fall of Journalism” conference at the London School of Economics in February 2005 can be found on their Media Group Blog:
“Journalists are blogging because they feel they have to show they are in touch with the online public”. This is an important point. The areas of blogging and journalism need to converge, to a degree, to benefit the most important factor: the readership!
http://groupblog.workasone.net/archives/0060.html
In Steve Outing’s article for Editor & Publisher entitled: “When Journalists Blog, Editors Get Nervous“, he tries to address the concerns employers have with blogging. This article was written before the Facebook explosion, so much of it’s content perhaps does not hold the same relevance as it would have in 2004, but he does make the point: “Most newspapers, trying to maintain an aura of objectivity, are bland. In time, … the voice of blogging will [hopefully] enliven newspapers and humanize journalists.”
Editor & Publisher (Outing) - http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/stopthepresses_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2092374
Future Blournalism?!
Perhaps one of the most interesting developments is “Live Blogging” – Keith McSpurren from Cover It Live likens it to a “bit of a radio show”. An opportunity for “interactive readership” with a controlled host who gives their professional opinion and skill-set to the details. They are currently growing live blogging up to a point where it is “useful”. It performed well as a product in the runup to the US presidential elections:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0iHHr_N1aY&feature=PlayList&p=6D5233336DE1272F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2
Dave Lee, writing on his Student Journalism blog for the Press Gazette makes some interesting points about the changing landscape of journalism. It’s importance to understand the need to adapt, replacing the perceived “deadwood” of old journalism. He writes of blogging, micro-blogging and social networking as a great form of research without having to put in the “legwork”
Student Journalism blog (May 2008): http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/students/
I am going to spend a bit of time looking at Wilson Lowrey’s (University of Alabama) 2006 paper: Mapping the blogging-journalism relationship
http://jou.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/4/477
And Swedish reporter, Partick Baltatzis take on “Is Blogging Innovating Journalism?”
http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-3-4/baltatzis.pdf
Finally, to the future: “Facebook applications that replace news websites”
The end of news websites (Lavrusik) http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2009/07/08/end-of-news-website/
This is Vicious signing off – for a bit of fun I leave you with Doonsbury’s Roland Hedley conducting the first “Twinterview” with CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2009/11/01/rs.kurtz.interviews.roland.hedley.cnn
And here’s to the future with the mockumentary “Flutter”!
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeLZCy-_m3s
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