June 13, 2006
Bloggers aren’t journalists
Robert Scoble posted late yesterday that "Great journalists call" in reference to the fact that some reporters actually called to confirm the rumour that he was leaving Microsoft while other bloggers simply went with the story as it unfurled its way through the blogosphere, without calling.
Journalists can be bloggers. Dan Gillmor. The folks at BusinessWeek. There’s no shortage of examples. And some bloggers are journalists, subscribing to a code of ethics that demands balanced reporting, objectivity or at least fairness, verification of the facts, and, dare I say it, Truth. I’ll leave you all to find your own examples here — anything I do will leave someone’s favorite out, and then everyone will focus on that rather than my point.
Just having a blog does not make someone a journalist. Even if they happen to break the news.
And before the citizen journalist advocates get up in arms, I *do* think citizens can be journalists. But not simply because they want to be or say they are. A citizen journalist has to do the same job we expect from a reporter from the daily paper. Fair and balanced reporting. Check the facts. Check your spelling or get a copy editor to do it for you.
Break the news right, you can call yourself a journalist. Spread a rumour? That’s gossip. Nothing wrong with doing that on your blog if you want to. It is your blog.
But reporting a rumour is not telling the story. Let’s not confuse the two.
Tags: Robert Scoble, journalism, citizen journalism, PR, public relations
June 13th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
I agree, Susan. Journalism in my opinion is altogether a different discipline than blogging. I am not sure that blogging is even considered a discipline, or should be for that matter. After many journalism classes, I believe that it takes much more than “breaking the news” to be considered journalism. And I know that for many people, including me, the writing done in blogs has a very different purpose than it would in structured journalism.
I honestly was surprised to see this become an issue. Bloggers are automatically journalists! Well, that’s an interesting idea that would probably infuriate some journalists that I know.
So, let me get this straight… a journalist can be a blogger, a blogger can be a journalist, but bloggers are not always journalists. Is that the way that you see it?
June 14th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
Yes, that is exactly how I see it. Thanks for the comment!
June 20th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Hi Susan,
I’ve been doing alot of writing on the subject of bloggers being different from journalists….although I do think that Scoble’s view’s a bit “angry” right now because he got scooped. So did Om Malik, who actually treated the whole thing rather humorously…
That being said, part of what’s bringing up the debate *yet* again is the California decision regarding bloggers–in that their first amendment rights are protected under the reporter’s shield law (and Apple has no right to delineate who’s a “legitimate” journalist.)
I’ve also had a really great on-going correspondence with a young journalist from a (gasp!) conservative publication. We’ve been exchanging different insights and are slowly coming to the conclusion that most bloggers aren’t journalists any more than most journalists are able to blog (alot of journalists stink at it.) There can be overlap, but we are communicating in different mediums for different reasons. What journalists see as a public service to what they do, a lot of bloggers see as engaging the community. slightly different orientation towards people and community.
Tish G.