Can Bloggers and Journos live together?
It’s often fought in London, New York, LA. But has it been argued in Belfast?
The Blogger and the Journalist, MSM and New Media.
My view is simple – Lou Reed is a Journalist, Dr Johnson was a Journalist, anyone who records and interprets the world around them in words (whether set in music, paper, web or stone) is a Journalist. At times that will extend to painting, sculpture, dance, any form of communication. Picasso was a Journalist when he painted Guernica.
I’ve been in journalism in one form or another for a long time. I don’t see it as the preserve of one group of people. But who cares what I think? Most of the time I don’t.
But there are skills that someone who has been trained in News, Reporting, Newspaper, Radio and TV has learned, developed, been taught. I do not for one second underestimate those skills and have often envied the best:
- The ability to clearly and perceptively tell a story
- The knowledge to distinguish between fact and opinion
- The detailed knowledge of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists or a similar work.
To say nothing of turning a story around on the hoof, meeting a deadline, being first, fair and accurate. And when required, impartial.
Is a Blogger a Journalist? I think so. Can a Blogger really screw up simply because they didn’t check the facts? Oooooh yes. If an experienced Journalist can, so can a Blogger. I will never forget the day when the lawyer’s brown envelope arrived, recorded delivery, because I had been quoted (as it happened misquoted) in a national magazine about chlorofluorocarbons in a polystyrene coffee cup.
So is it worth a discussion at BarCamp? Not a discussion on MSM v Bloggers, I’m so tired of that. A discssion on what each can learn from the other. Along those lines, anyway.
Finding Bloggers will be easy – will Journos participate? I can only ask. What do you think? What’s the shape, form, agenda for such a discussion?
Hi Davy,
Would be definitely interested in hearing the debate, and I think its a worthy Barcamp contender. I think that the two can co-exist in harmony, if we scratch each others backs. The problem with Bloggers is that the Internet is full of lies at the best of times, and thus accurate reporting can fall by the wayside easily in pursuit of website traffic, and a “better” albeit inaccurate story.e.g. see this:
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/05/fake-story-abou.html
Comment by Paul Anthony — March 5, 2009 @ 4:05 pm
Thanks Paul - will continue to work on it
Comment by Davy Sims — March 16, 2009 @ 11:41 am