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.
[...] Diese Frage beschäftigt die Blogger- als auch die Vlogger-Szene? Es ist einer der dauerhaften Fragen innerhalb des Internet und Anstoß für viele Diskussionen. Ist es mittlerweile nicht auch die Frage nach “gut oder böse”? Josh Wolf zieht einen Vergleich zur Frage: Sind Christen gute Menschen? Lesenswerter Artikel, den Josh während seiner Untersuchungshaft geschrieben hat. Social Bookmarking: Diese Icons verzweigen auf soziale Netzwerke bei denen Nutzer neue Inhalte finden und mit anderen teilen können. [...]
thank you very very nıce thankyou very very much…
Excuse my french (I have no idea where that saying came from, I guess the french must swear a lot?) but– DAMN STRAIGHT.
The last paragraph basically sums up how I feel about this question. Also, as a seventeen year old girl in high school it is difficult to get published in a “real” magazine or newspaper, so I work with what I can. And truth be told, there are many writers my age who have more drive and more hunger for truth and explanation than many established journalists in their 30’s or 40’s.
Irony #1: blogging about blogging…
Over the last month much discussion has been taking place over conduct within and around blogging. Days after Tim O’Reilly suggested his Draft Code of Conduct with Jimmy Wales he pretty much knocked it on the head in an interview with Wired and wonde…
[...] Um Mithilfe bei diesem Thema bat auch der Journalistenblogger Knüwer vor einiger Zeit. In Englisch gibt’s dazu dies, wo er auch die Frage stellt, ob Christen gute Menschen sind. Vielleicht aber geht es auch gar nicht um diese Frage… Kategorie: Schnipsel [...]
very good article….i publish original photos which the major corporate media will not touch…keep up the good work..
josh,
great article, well argued. there’s a lot of stuff in mainstream papers and magazines that I would never in a million yeas credit as journalism (take cosmo magazine for gods sake!), and some absolutely dead-on reporting coming out of blogs, zines, etc that obviously are journalism.
my blog, for instance, is definitely not journalism. some of it might border on political science (ostensibly my field of expertise), but it’s mostly just me talking about what’s on my mind, not going out and covering events and breaking new stories. but if i did do that stuff then those articles would be journalism. journalism has become an activity – not just an occupation – and that’s a very good thing for everyone who’s burnt on the corporate media.
and that points towards what i think *really* bothers the flamers about your case and blogging in general. the low entry costs of Internet media erodes on the clean, neat, hierarchal division of labor. that traditional capitalism is based on.
in the old paradigm carpenters build things out of wood, steelworkers build things out of steel, and people who work for news corporations are journalists. by breaking that division of labor open and allowing public access to the ivory tower blogging make the playing field more horizontal – the same way that file sharing and internet distribution has allowed independent musicians (like me) to get our music heard globally, something that used to be the exclusive purview of the major labels. that scares people, and good riddance. those people should be scared. the world is changing and they can either catch up or be dinosaurs.
anyway, hope you’re well. any word on the footage from the show?
lynx
I agree wholeheartedly that blogs are merely another medium through which journalism can be practiced. Are there any concerns about lack of proper education/training about ethical situations that are bound to come up when trying to practice journalism when it comes to citizen journalism?
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