Thursday, May 04, 2006
Sunspace
In his book “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism: By the People, For the People,” Dan Gillmor states, “When anyone can be a writer, in the largest sense and for a global audience, many of us will be.” He was right. In an article published by Quill Magazine in March 2005, Andrew Smales, a Toronto-based programmer who launched the first broad-based blogging tool in 1999, said, “There were less than 100 people when it started. Now 100 people probably sign up every hour.”
It’s something like a phenomenon.
Really, it’s quite extraordinary that such a powerful tool is at so many people’s fingertips. Angry about Bush administration policies? Blog it. Want to create a niche community for kayaking crazies? Blog it. Really, anyone can start a blog for any reason without great effort. Of course, applying standards to such an unfettered system is a separate challenge.
The real debate lies here. Mainstream journalists are feeling skittish about sales, and a proliferating medium that is not harnessed by journalistic ethics or teachings, but is packaged a news source, is understandably frightful. Not everyone is pessimistic though, and as two poynter.com articles point out, both sides could benefit from some cross-dressing and education.
Journalism’s core principles: truthfulness, relevance, timeliness, etc. cannot be ignored by blogging gurus. In fact, if bloggers intend to remain important to news readers, it must abide by the rules of the journalistic trade. As many news organizations are discovering, quality yields quantity (of readers), and though bloggers are not impacted by market share, to really be useful to society they must care for their content. This means avoiding a glut of journalism no-no’s, such as anonymous sources, a lack of sources, corporate bribes and careless reporting.
Traditional news, in contrast, could also learn a lesson or two. In my opinion, the most important is forming better relationships with readers. Blogging offers an empowering opportunity for readers and reporters to converse, an opportunity rarely available to practicing journalists. This is blogging’s beautiful gift. What a wonderful chance to learn and be impacted by an audience daily. And what a wonderful way to get to know them too.
I think Steve Outing put it best: “Bloggers and mainstream journalists likely won't end up as twins, but perhaps cordial cousins.”
Outing’s two worthy reads:
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75383
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75665
It’s something like a phenomenon.
Really, it’s quite extraordinary that such a powerful tool is at so many people’s fingertips. Angry about Bush administration policies? Blog it. Want to create a niche community for kayaking crazies? Blog it. Really, anyone can start a blog for any reason without great effort. Of course, applying standards to such an unfettered system is a separate challenge.
The real debate lies here. Mainstream journalists are feeling skittish about sales, and a proliferating medium that is not harnessed by journalistic ethics or teachings, but is packaged a news source, is understandably frightful. Not everyone is pessimistic though, and as two poynter.com articles point out, both sides could benefit from some cross-dressing and education.
Journalism’s core principles: truthfulness, relevance, timeliness, etc. cannot be ignored by blogging gurus. In fact, if bloggers intend to remain important to news readers, it must abide by the rules of the journalistic trade. As many news organizations are discovering, quality yields quantity (of readers), and though bloggers are not impacted by market share, to really be useful to society they must care for their content. This means avoiding a glut of journalism no-no’s, such as anonymous sources, a lack of sources, corporate bribes and careless reporting.
Traditional news, in contrast, could also learn a lesson or two. In my opinion, the most important is forming better relationships with readers. Blogging offers an empowering opportunity for readers and reporters to converse, an opportunity rarely available to practicing journalists. This is blogging’s beautiful gift. What a wonderful chance to learn and be impacted by an audience daily. And what a wonderful way to get to know them too.
I think Steve Outing put it best: “Bloggers and mainstream journalists likely won't end up as twins, but perhaps cordial cousins.”
Outing’s two worthy reads:
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75383
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75665
# posted by Mia @ 3:55 PM 
Comments:
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For the past three hundred, human beings have been in competition against each other as early as primary school or grade school whether it was in inter-mural sports or for placement in the best universities. Journalists are not skittish about the competition. Quite the contrary, long before small town America became a one paper town; newspapers were competing against their cross town rivals, like the Washington Post and the Washington Star and later the Washington Times. Journalists competed against each other for years. The crux of the problem is that the journalistic world has never given the necessary respect to its competition until the competition is beating the journalistic world at its own game. Casing point, the world of print journalism took many years before it would recognize broadcast journalists as journalists. In pointed fact, print journalists once referred to their broadcast colleagues as bastard child of the journalistic world. That was until broadcast journalists prove that they can run circles around print. More importantly, someone once said that a little revolution every now and again may be a healthy thing. Blogging might be that little revolution. Journalists live to cover a fast changing world. The problem here is that they just cannot afford being out of a job. As if that is not bad enough, the journalistic world have proven inapt at getting the facts right in a major story the first time round. In March 1981, ABC in their coverage of the attempted Reagan assassination prematurely announced the death of then White House Press Secretary James Brady. Next, everyone called the 2000 elections wrong. Finally, who can forget the Sago mine tragedy? Newspapers led with headlines declaring the miraculous survival of 12 miners, only to reprint an embarrassing retraction declaring that only one miner barely survived.
Keep in mind, that bloggers are just people raving or ranting about something or anything. You said it yourself. "Angry about Bush administration policies. Blog it." Need I say more? Bloggers are a long way off from being journalists. Bloggers might be in journalism what economists refer to as the invisible hand or the invisible foot. In this case, bloggers could ensure that journalists do actually cover the news more fairly and more objectively and less subtle bias.
Keep in mind, that bloggers are just people raving or ranting about something or anything. You said it yourself. "Angry about Bush administration policies. Blog it." Need I say more? Bloggers are a long way off from being journalists. Bloggers might be in journalism what economists refer to as the invisible hand or the invisible foot. In this case, bloggers could ensure that journalists do actually cover the news more fairly and more objectively and less subtle bias.
I agree with you, Charles, on several points. But...(ah, the infamous but.)
As a devout printesian artist, (print journalist), my stomach aches at the sound, and thought — however true — that broadcast media can "run circles around print." Rarely have I seen television news report anything that isn't in that day's, or the previous day's, newspaper. In terms of getting to the scene of a cat stuck in the tree, TV news is always on top of it. Hats off.
But the competative nature is real. It's so real that even journalists fight for stories from within the same newsroom. But that is what is attractive about this industry, and I think it's the reason that journalism continues to progress — just like anything else.
I also think Charles is correct in saying that bloggers are "a long way of from being journalists," but that distinction exists mostly between hard news and blogs. I don't see many bloggers writing hard news reports. The difference between feature-writers and bloggers is less strict, however, and it would be fairly easy for a blogger skill in writing about place and people has a future in certain areas of journalism. I think the real separation in this case is good from bad writers. Anyone who can put you at the scene, not matter if it's the grocery store or the White House Association dinner, will attract readers. In feature pieces, the facts often aren't highly contested; reporters need not double and triple check facts that are common sense, and most feature pieces deal with dialogue and mere observation. This is where bloggers could find a place.
Another place for bloggers is as pseudo-sources. I look to bloggers for many of the ideas to pursue in writing. I've searched blogs for Iran for a story coming out on Friday, and it helped me, just slightly in this case, formulate questions about several House bills dealing with Iran and the squabbling between our and their governments.
I know it's subtle place to stop, but I need to go, so I'll just point out one of the many advantages of blogging to close: 'proper' conclusions aren't a requirement.
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As a devout printesian artist, (print journalist), my stomach aches at the sound, and thought — however true — that broadcast media can "run circles around print." Rarely have I seen television news report anything that isn't in that day's, or the previous day's, newspaper. In terms of getting to the scene of a cat stuck in the tree, TV news is always on top of it. Hats off.
But the competative nature is real. It's so real that even journalists fight for stories from within the same newsroom. But that is what is attractive about this industry, and I think it's the reason that journalism continues to progress — just like anything else.
I also think Charles is correct in saying that bloggers are "a long way of from being journalists," but that distinction exists mostly between hard news and blogs. I don't see many bloggers writing hard news reports. The difference between feature-writers and bloggers is less strict, however, and it would be fairly easy for a blogger skill in writing about place and people has a future in certain areas of journalism. I think the real separation in this case is good from bad writers. Anyone who can put you at the scene, not matter if it's the grocery store or the White House Association dinner, will attract readers. In feature pieces, the facts often aren't highly contested; reporters need not double and triple check facts that are common sense, and most feature pieces deal with dialogue and mere observation. This is where bloggers could find a place.
Another place for bloggers is as pseudo-sources. I look to bloggers for many of the ideas to pursue in writing. I've searched blogs for Iran for a story coming out on Friday, and it helped me, just slightly in this case, formulate questions about several House bills dealing with Iran and the squabbling between our and their governments.
I know it's subtle place to stop, but I need to go, so I'll just point out one of the many advantages of blogging to close: 'proper' conclusions aren't a requirement.
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