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Bloggers are not journalists.
By Tom | August 20, 2007
In an op-ed in the LA Times, Michael Skube, a journalism professor at Elon University took a rather inept swipe at bloggers and the blogosphere. Josh Marshall at TPM and Kagro X at DailyKos took Skube to task for his lack of practicing what we was preaching, so I can skip that part.
Instead, I’d like to take on the implicit message in the op-ed, which is that bloggers are wannabe journalists who didn’t or can’t make the grade and all you have to do is read the blogs to see why.
I was trained as, and have been, a journalist (a pretty good one, actually) and I am now a (part-time) blogger who has only recently begun his own blog. Blogging is not journalism and doesn’t aim to be. The only thing the two have in common is their use of written language to communicate.
Look around this place called the blogosphere and what you see are citizens doing what Kagro X points out correctly they have always done: Speaking up, trying to express their opinions and what they know, and trying to influence those around them — friends, colleagues, neighbors and acquaintances.
Bloggers are more like the pamphleteers of the revolutionary era — modern Tom Paines and such. And like those writers, who often wrote for reasons other than money and frequently paid to have their words printed, bloggers occasionally have influence far beyond their original intent. That’s the holy grail.
As a journalist, I held my self to a strict standard. I believed I had a duty to report accurately, include all the information I had in every story I wrote, to ask good questions and question all the answers I got (especially those backed by authority). I believed I should go beyond what I was told and give my readers valuable context. These are standards not many practicing journalists meet today.
As a progressive political blogger, I hold myself to a different standard. I believe my duty is to follow in the footsteps of Tom Paine, to rally my fellow citizens to reclaim the rights and liberties they had stolen from them, to influence my friends and neighbors, to endorse and support those with whom I agree and oppose those with whom I disagree. To end an immoral war. To fight for social justice and good government.
In other words, I am trying to achieve a specific goal and I’m working to that end. My own blog and those in which I participate as a diarist or commenter, are my means to that end. If they didn’t exist, I’d find another way.
I have a revolution in mind. As for journalism, been there. Done that.
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