FeedAre Bloggers Journalists?
This essay was actually written as a statement to be delivered at a meeting for the University of Arizona chapter of SPJ while I was still in custody; I’ve posted it here without any changes to what I originally wrote. As such, there is a number of temporal references that seem out of place.
The question has no simple answer, just as there is no easy way to respond to being asked, “Are Christians good people?” Most would respond that some are and some are not; certain zealots would proclaim that all Christians are good people by definition, and still others would argue that all people are good despite whatever bad things they may have done. A fourth group would claim that the very idea of “good” and “evil” is an entirely artificial construct and a completely irrelevant measure, and all of these arguments are a valid response to the question that is before us tonight.
The simplest answer is that some bloggers are journalists whereas others are not. After all, few would contend that the 16 year-old who writes about her daily exploits on her Myspace page is a journalist. But what happens when this very same girl manages to break a story on her principal’s scheme to embezzle from the school? Does she then become a journalist? When she returns to writing about the guy in chemistry, is this now journalism? In a recent essay, Bill Moyers cites Tom Rosentiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism who points out that “the proper question is not whether you call yourself a journalist but whether your work itself constitutes journalism.” Given the paradoxes inherent in tonight’s question, I’m inclined to think that Moyer and Rosentiel are onto something.
Can bloggers be journalists? Absolutely. A blog is nothing more than a medium. Sure, the cost of entry is cheaper than launching your own daily newspaper and the rules of engagement aren’t nearly as formalized, but when you think about it, how different is this than the development of any new medium? I imagine that when radio was invented there were plenty of newspapermen and a few newspaperwomen who were clamoring that radio-news was not real journalism. This same scenario likely played out again with the advent of television. Today it’s the internet, and like the journalists of yester-year many are quick to discount blogs as a viable medium for transmitting news and some probably feel threatened by the development as well.
In many ways the very first blogger was I.F.Stone. Of course his Weekly came and went long before the blog was invented but his approach is very similar to that of many bloggers. Each week he’d publish a paper that contained a combination of stories from other publications, his reflections, and original reportage. If you look at many blogs you’ll see the very same formula. Just as I.F. Stone’s Weekly is considered journalism, so should this approach to news-gathering when applied to a blog.
If we can establish that it is not the form but the function that defines journalism then we must determine what criterion are necessary to establish something as such. Once again, Moyers and Rosentiel come through with a description that I find hard to argue against: “A journalist tries to get the facts right,’ tries to get as close as possible to the verifiable truth–not to help one side win or lose but to ‘inspire public discussion.’ Neutrality … is not a core principle of journalism, ‘but the commitment to facts, to public consideration, and to independence from faction, is.’”
If a work falls within this general rubric than it seems safe to qualify it as journalism; it shouldn’t matter whether it happens to be the work of a newspaper reporter, a television personality, or a blogger sitting in her bedroom fueled by nothing more than a fresh cup of coffee and an undying zest to uncover the truth and share her findings with the world. As I see it, that blogger whose sole motivation is the pursuit of truth and who cannot expect a pay-check from her pursuits is a true journalist and her contribution may likely prove as valuable as those of her professional colleagues.
