Is a blogger a journalist?

[sweetheart]

Both bloggers and journalists write opinions, publish photos and
write regularly. Many stories are researched and published on
little money, as with freelance journalism, pay may not be coming
if noone buys the story.

So that begs the question, what is the difference? Could we see a
new world where bloggers are forced to get journalist visas, to visit
countries? Could bloggers be held responsible for defamation and
things that journalists are held for? Could bloggers be put before
grand juries and demanded to produce sources?

Do you think that there is a difference?

[bryant69]

1. Yeah

The biggest difference is that there is no editorial review or editorial policy to a blog. A bloggist can basically put out whatever he wants whenever he wants. Now in some cases that's a good thing; it certainly gives the blogger the leg up on timeliness and allows him to touch stories that the big boys won't dare. But in other ways its a bad thing; there's nothing stopping a blogger from just making stuff up for example, or from having very lax standards of proof if a story fits what he already thinks.

I really can't see a day when bloggers (excluding those bloggists who work for a major organization) are treated like reporters. A better comparison to the journalist world is that of a columnist.

Bryant
check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[sweetheart]

2. So then, what about visas

Could the US start treating private people who blog as columnists
and forcing them to register as journalists on entry.

I feel, that the grace period of the internet might be winding
down, and that there is a serious danger that the bush people might
start a pogrom against bloggers to shut down the internet's
influence. Should we be registering with reporters sans frontiers?

[bryant69]

8. Yes and no

Bloggers aren't uniformly leftists. Certainly a lot are, but there are quite a few conservative bloggers as well, including some that are pretty well known. So in slamming leftist bloggists, they would inevitably be slamming conservative bloggists as well. Cynically we might suggest that Conservatives Bloggists will have no trouble getting journalist visas, but some of them won't look at it that way, but see it more as a civil liberties issue. And will protest this new policy.

[InvisibleBallots]

4. nothing preventing editors from making stuff up either

or letting false stories get published, or ordering reporters to print lies, etc. Happens all the time, at newspapers like WP and NYT. The only difference between a journalist and a blogger is the salary.

[bryant69]

5. It doesn't happen all the time. It happens rarely

And they have a system. Teh system doesn't always work, certainly in the case of Jayson Blair it didn't work. But they have a system that is supposed to prevent those sorts of things from happening. Bloggers have no system at all to prevent false material from making it onto the blog.

[rman]

3. bloggers usually have no formal training, nor are they beholden

to journalistic integrity.
If a journalist screws up you can call him/her on it since it is a professional error. A blogger screwing up could rightly claim he's not a journalist.

That isn't to say blogging is without value, but there is a difference between blogging and journalism.

Btw, journalists do write more then just opinion.
(real) journalism is primarily about reporting, ie "Bush said xyz" - that's not opinion, it's fact.

Otoh Fox covering an anti-war demonstration and commenting "you can see in their eyes how they hate America" - that's not fact but opinion.

[sweetheart]

6. Journalism seems distinctly missing these days

Perhaps that explains the rise of blogging to start with, in that
there is a large credibility gap between faux reporting and real
people speaking frankly.

As to framing, the choice of topic, photos and spin, the blogger has
a leg up on the journalist in that the editorial restrictions
are for a party line, that the blogger is not beholden to.

Lets say you took a trip to russia, and while you were there, took
some mobile phone pictures. On returning, you could write a
travel log and a news story about the experience. Perhaps it
will be negative and russia might feel offended that a journalist
was able to enter their country to write a story without having
to declare themselves, and be potentially denied entry for
the potential intent to write a peice without editorial controls
that are pre-known.

Could we start to see people forced to declare any blogging as they
enter borders. I get a feeling that the BFEE might start a wave
of repression using this very gray area.

[rman]

16. certainly

much of journalism these days is a disaster.
And blogging can offer an alternative to that in so far that it can be used as an alternative publishing platform.

But blogging is a platfom, a medium rather then a literary discipline.
Blogging can be about anything from a diary on the trivialities of everyday life, to zero-compromise investigative journalism.

Blogging is like a soapbox. anyone can climb on top of the soapbox and say anything. revolutions have been started that way - but that doesn't make anyone who stands on the soapbox and says something, a revolutionary.

Therefore a blogger is not automatically a journalist.

[sweetheart]

20. newspaper writers

are all "the press", no? A huge team of writers make the travel
section, cooking, sports, technology and areas that are long on
commentary, and short on "investigative journalism".

Your classification would make a good many people working for
newspapers "not automatically a journalist" as well.

[rman]

22. i didn't say the only good journalist is an investigative journalist

i was merely describing the spectrum of subjects that can be found on blogs. writing about travel, cooking, sports, technology is still reporting rather then a diary of everyday life.

[JawJaw]

7. Same thing really

There's been a strong tradition of underground pamphlets for hundreds of years, since printing began and the technology to spread information was taken out of the hands of the authorities (churches mostly).

I'm sure the churches regarded the original pamphlets/newspapers with the same disdain (and fear) that the "conventional" media regards blogs now. They could see that their power and revenue stream was going to be adversely affected.

They will either have to adapt, or face extinction.

[sweetheart]

9. They might try to fight first

Like this new attempt to silence dissidents, likely the bagdhad
blogger and all bloggers from such places will be silenced as well
by going after the web-hosts.

I'm sure the church waged quite a war against the pamphlet printers
before finally rolling over.

[leftofthedial]

10. don't confuse media with the substance of the content

legally?

I suppose blogs might be considered publications.

[nostamj]

11. a journalist can be a blogger

but a blogger is not necessisarily a journlist.

lord know I'm not a journalist but I do have a blog. I post opinions, rants, even poetry but I don't pretend to break stories or do investigations.

and, I certainly don't have sources to protect!

since sigs are off (again):

Nostamj_blog

[Protagoras]

12. Journalism is dead in this country.

Bloggers are the closest thing to a replacement but they lack any of the training, or code of professional ethics that would define them as a profession.

There would be a difference, but it's moot because we only have one of them...no choice = no difference.

[Cleita]

13. If they adhere to journalistic standards, yes they are,

even more so than the propaganda establishment who call themselves journalists. A print editor/journalist being interviewed on Randi Rhodes last week said that Randi had more of a right to call herself a journalist than any of the other wags on the air because of her careful research and integrity in presenting her arguments.

[SoCalDem]

14. Bloggers are the "fly on the wall"...no one pays any attention to them

at least in the beginning.

Since they "owe no allegiance" to any company or media venue, they are free to write whatever they want.

Drudge started this way.. just throwing stuff he's heard //out there for all to see...vetted or not.

They get their credibility by having things they "expose", turning out to be true.

Until the final meltdown of the formal media, things that appear in blogs will lack credibility until the major media expounds upon them, BUT we all know how tight with the dollar media is therse days, so they are more than happy to have stories "given" to them. ..and there are lots of l;azy journalists who are inly too happy to "borrow" stuff they find on the web..

Almost everything is heresay or opinion, until it's verified by an outside source..

[sweetheart]

17. in the beginning

With every passing month, as the internet grows and grows as a tool
of the information establishment, bloggers are now the leading edge
of independent journalism.

I expect a crackdown come the inauguration, that tries to reclassify
blogs as publishers, and holds them for liabel and this new law about
foreign dissidents. As well, they'll start circulating lists of
names of active bloggers, to bar them from jobs and situations where
they might expose the propaganda.

As what is a blogger who dissents, but a whistleblower, and given
the thorn status, there is reason to be concerned, especially for
those of us who live abroad... as a formal reclassification of any
blogger to "journalist" would involve very different visa standards
of "foreign correspondents" rather than private indiviuals.

A canadian blogger living inside the US could be arrested and
deported for visa fraud, by not obtaining a journalist visa. At
some point after "the beginning", the establishment propaganda
outlets are gonna go for the jugular of public dissent, and that
clearly is the internet of liberal democrats.

[SoCalDem]

18. They may try, but I think there are lots of savvy computer-istas

who will always be one step ahead..:fingers crossed:

[Cat Atomic]

15. Are journalists "Journalists"?

Sadly, the editor-deficient bloggers seem to be reporting the news much more accurately than the mainstream media these days. The good ones are better journalists than most of the mainstream hacks that claim the title.

[SoCalDem]

19. Because they are not worried about the almighty paycheck,

they can "afford" to say the truth as they know it.

Paychecks and medical coverage for your family, will always "temper" a journalist's words.

[Finding Rawls]

21. Maybe in some cases

I think that in order to be a journalist you have to have some source of information which most, or many, people lack. If you're merely taking stories from the news wire or the MSM, you're, at best, a pundit. Bloggers are in general a big distraction in my mind. But I applaud those that do provide new and otherwise elusive information.