Is Blogging Journalism ?
Case 1 (source sbsun.com)
Videoblogger Josh Wolf’s was imprisoned for contempt of court, he has been behind bars since September for his refusal to testify about a July 2005 San Francisco street protest during which a police officer was injured and a police car damaged.
To his supporters, Wolf is a journalist who has been imprisoned longer than any other journalist in U.S. history for refusing to divulge unpublished information. He achieved that distinction as of Feb. 6.
Case 2 (Source News 24)
Vilnius - An internet blogger in new EU member state Lithuania vowed on Tuesday to fight a parliamentary decision refusing him accreditation on the grounds that he was not a legitimate journalist. Parliament rejected his application for accreditation, saying he and other bloggers do not meet the legal definition of a journalist.
“The Media Law describes a journalist as a person who collects, disseminates and provides information to the media, based on a contract with the media, or who is a member of a journalists’ union,” parliament’s education, science and culture committee said.
Would a Blogger qualify for media accreditation in South Africa ? It would be interesting to know if anyone has tried and what the response was.
Media constantly evolves. So too should the definition of what a journalist is. I wonder if the first TV crews had to fight for accreditation ? Now I am not advocating that every blogger should be given media accreditation. I am not even certain that I would even give media accreditation to a rag like “Die Son” for example even though they are technically a newspaper. But I am certain that I would give every “Best Technical Blog” finalist, media accreditation for an IT trade show for example.
I believe that blogging is performing a very important role in the new media today. Free of the hierarchy of traditional media and not bound by their rules and constraints, bloggers can be damned scary because they are not, nor can they be controlled.
Is this precisely the problem ?
Blogged with Flock
April 3rd, 2007 at 1:35 pm
This is a very important question - often journalists are recognised by their membership of associations etc. I am going to forward this to Ferial, our editor, and see what she thinks.
April 3rd, 2007 at 2:24 pm
It is a good question and i wonder if to much emphasis is placed on the “what is blogging” question.
In short its a simple publishing system. Anyone on the web can get one. And what with all the hype surrounding blogging it the perfect platform to be heard - weather you are a journalist or an aspiring one, or a propagandist or or
Blogging is a new media channel, like TV, like radio, like newspapers. It has plenty of shit in it, some lack credibility and some have impeccable credibility and so are useful and others are not - but the difference is it web based and anyone can join - its the first delivery of media driven by individuals and collectives for better or worse - but it is ours.
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Vincent - That will be most interesting, would you post her reply here? I am tempted to test Khagiso who is organising the Tourism Indaba this year by asking for media accreditation lol just for laughs, hmmm maybe I should.
grandMasterhrust - My point exactly, it is ours and therefore not controllable. Uncomfortable for the Status Quo mayhaps ?
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Hmmm should we start a web media association ? just a thought.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Okay, this is what Ferial had to say about it:
“My test would be twofold: one, do you subscribe to the code of ethics in
practice and philosophy? And two, are you published (and read)?
And even then, I’m not sure that online diarists (as clever, perspicacious,
on the button as they are) are journalists. This is not snobbishness or
old-school protectionism.
Not every person who writes a journal (in deadwood) is a journalist. If we
must look for print comparisons, then most bloggers are like columnists or
newspaper letter-writers. Not all of them are journalists, though some might
be. “
April 4th, 2007 at 8:46 am
I agree with Ferial on this - otherwise any criminal or accomplice could start a blog and claim to be protecting sources in order to protect themselves.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Vincent-Firstly, thanks for posting Ferial’s reply.
Her comments are interesting and pretty much in line with what I said in the article. For arguments sake, however, what if we formed a web media association (podcasters, vloggers and bloggers) which conformed to her first requirement namely subscribing to the code of ethics in practice and philosophy. The published and read criteria, lets say is met as well.(most bloggers are published and read to some extent)
I agree that not every blogger is a journalist nor perhaps would want to be but should we deny accreditation to those who take their blogging seriously just because of the choice of the medium. Surely the content should be the deciding factor. Here it becomes a bit of a catch 22 because to get good content one reqiuires access, which at times needs media accreditation. Just a thought.
April 5th, 2007 at 5:30 am
[…] raises an excellent question in his blog post, “Is Blogging Journalism?” I believe that blogging is performing a very important role in the new media today. Free of […]
April 5th, 2007 at 10:18 am
I agree with what Hash says. Does it really matter? If you thought blogs were not credible or is untrustworthy simply because it is not written by an accredited journo, you would not have read it! Yet, day after day you visit a collection of blogs whom are written by people you know or trust. So in the end, is that not what makes the difference? The TRUST factor. It is sort of accepted that what you read in the papers by journos can be trusted (although from personal experience the truth is far from it!). If an unknown/anonymous blogger covers a huge story, are you going to take his information as trustworthy? Until his findings were confirmed by a trusted source, you probably won’t.
Very interesting topic, indeed!
April 5th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Stii, thanks for making my point a little more coherent. I guess there’s a reason you shouldn’t write blog posts at 2:00 AM…
There’s a reason that most people’s “About” page is the second place people click when coming to a new blog - they want to know if the writer is credible. This credibility can also be derived from the websites and blogs that orignally drive someone to another blogger. Again, it’s the trust factor.
I feel like I’m missing something though, and hopefully someone can clue me in on it. What is the advantage of being an accredited journalist?
April 6th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Stii and Hash - thanx for your points. I would suggest that media accreditation would be important in terms of access to information and events which would be denied to members of the public. As in case one, accreditation can also help when dealing with the courts in terms of protecting sources of information.
As pointed out in ypur post Hash, the person wanting to reach your readership does not really care but should we not enjoy the same rights and protections journo’s do, should we so choose ? Part of what Ferial said made sense to me too. Journo’s do subscribe to a code of practice and part of that code ensures that they check facts before publishing. This ensures credibilty with the readership. Do bloggers in general do the same ?
April 16th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
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