As a blogger I am subject to no rules, ethical codes or deadlines (great!). I have no editor, no publisher and no boss. I get to write what I want, when I want. So I can hardly be called a journalist if by my own admission I am not playing by any of the normal rules of journalism.
Unfortunately the lines between blogging and journalism has grown more and more blurred. Anybody can start a blog, it’s free and really easy to use. With the internet reaching further and father than any physical publication, a blogger can spread the news just as fast as the power of any media mogul.
Fortunately I have a degree in journalism to back up my credibility as a blogger. Although this does not necessarily give me the right to consider my blog an example of journalism. After all, as Rebecca Blood, author of the Weblog Diary points out, “it is the practice that defines the practitioner, not the other way around.”
In this case I wish my blog to be as professional as possible as I value my credibility as journalist. But this is my blog, it is my opinion about my observations of the world around me. Blogging is simply news with a personal touch. Andrew Sullivan, the author of The Blogging Revolution says, “This personal touch is much more in tune with our current sensibilities than the opinionated magazines and newspapers of old.”
In my opinion blogging represents a new, more democratic form of journalism. It promotes citizen participation and encourages debate, rather than stifles it with the over-inflated ego of puffed up editors.
What some journalists have a problem with, is that there is no regulation to compare the good blogs with the bad blogs. Although this is hypocritical, as unlike medicine or law, every aspect of journalism is subjective. Nothing is black and white when it comes to reporting the news.
There are no real standards for journalism, but there are ethical codes which are supposed to be adhered by. These include fairness towards sources, double checking of facts and quotes and grammar and spell checking, especially of names (journalism 101: don’t misspell your source’s name!).
At a blogging and journalism conference at Havard University in 2005 it was agreed that, “It’s impossible and undesirable for anyone to set ‘ethical standards’ for bloggers, but it’s also clear that certain principles make it more likely for a blogger or a journalist to achieve higher credibility.”
Now there is no reason why a blogger can not follow these ‘rules’ any more so than a journalist. Just because I don’t have a editor and a fancy desk doesn’t mean my blog can’t be considered journalism. I feel that ultimately it will be the reader who decides if a blog is worthy to be considered journalism or not.
So like any journalist, a blogger is accountable to their readers. If the blog is rubbish, the reader will click away.
I hope you consider this blog to be a good example of journalism.
…now you can click away!
Thoughts from a Viking land 