Blogging and Journalism
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Technorati Blog Directory
Top 100 Blogs
Extraordinary Ordinary guy in Japan
Baghdad Burning
Knowing and Doing
MediaCrit.com
NYTimes/blogs
• 1998…..Matt Drudge
• DRUDGE REPORT
• bloggers threaten journalism
BLOGGERS vs. journalists
• “Everything I print from my apartment,
everything I publish I believe to be true and
accurate.”--Matt Drudge
Bloggers vs. JOURNALISTS
Doug Harbrecht, President,
National Press Club, 1998
“Real journalists live, pride themselves on getting
it first AND right; they get to the bottom of the
story, they bend over backwards to get the other
side. Journalism means being painstakingly
thorough, even-handed, and fair.”
JOURNALISTS
Doug Harbrecht to Drudge:
“Aren't you coarsening the public discourse?”
“It’s not clear yet whether blogging is anything
more than CB radio.”
-John Markoff (New York Times Technology Reporter)
“Traditional journalists look at bloggers like
Major League Baseball players look at some
guy in the cheap seats yelling advice.”
• Perlmutter, in Palser article
BLOGGERS vs journalists
• We’re fighting against journalism in the hands of
an enthroned few, who speak in a voice of phony,
unearned authority to the passive masses
• Mainstream press IS politically biased,
– or they are ignoring or suppressing important stories,
– or they are out of touch with ordinary people’s
concerns,
– or they are merely passive transmitters of official
utterances.
…………………………AND……..
BLOGGERS vs journalists
“We can fact check your ass off!”
SHIFT IN POWER
• Drudge: “There is a hunger for unedited
information…”
SHIFT IN POWER
• Hunger for non-objective information?
SHIFT IN POWER
Jay Rosen, NYU Journalism professor:
“We’re in an…“Almost a feudal period where there will
be many more centers of power and influence.”
BLOGGERS=PAMPHLETEERS
• 1700s IN ENGLAND
• “new media” =
pamphlets
Daniel Defoe/Robinson Crusoe
Key moments for BLOGS
• Lewinsky scandal
• Trent Lott’s bigoted birthday salute to
Strom
• Rathergate
ECONOMIC REASONS
WHY JOURNALISTS ARE THREATENED BY BLOGS
• Bloggers threaten the foundation of the
commercial media system (Accuracy)
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Professional staff
Advertising
Readers
Newspaper’s accuracy holds it all together
ECONOMIC REASONS
WHY JOURNALISTS ARE THREATENED BY BLOGS
Meanwhile…
Bloggers have no overhead
Can stick with a story forever
Can specialize in totally narrow “beats” with
expertise
Not expected to be accurate
Can target really narrow segments
May already be at the scene of a news event
EMOTIONAL REASONS
WHY JOURNALISTS ARE THREATENED BY BLOGS
• Blogs = the 5th Estate (we can fact check your ass!)
– Circulate bloopers, outtakes, pranks, jokes, and
embarrassing performances by big shots.
• Blogs keep stories going
Dan Rather and Connie Chung
NOW THE WAR IS OVER
• Bloggers and journalists are WORKING
TOGETHER
– “as a symbiotic ecosystem”
– 5th estate is GOOD for journalism
– Blogs as conduits: good for journalism
TRUST
Jay Rosen (NYU Journalism professor):
“Blog responsibly, and you'll build a
reputation for being a trusted news
source. Don't, and you won't have a
reputation to worry about."
Blogs can be journalism
• When a blogger writes up daily accounts of an
international conference, as David Steven did at the 2002
World Summit on Sustainable Development, that is
journalism.
• When a magazine reporter repurposes a press release
without checking facts or talking to additional sources, that
is not.
• When a blogger interviews an author about their new book,
that is journalism.
• When an opinion columnist manipulates facts in order to
create a false impression, that is not.
• When a blogger searches the existing record of fact and
discovers that a public figure's claim is untrue, that is
journalism.
– BARB PALSER, QUOTING REBECCA
BLOOD
• PRO-AMS: amateurs who work to
professional standards
• Romanesko
• Politico
VLOGGING
• ROCKETBOOM
• Chris Pirillo
• What does it mean to be so transparent?
• What does it mean to expose yourselves so
completely?