Blogging and Journalism

• 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. JOURNALISTSDoug 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)– Professional staff– Advertising– Readers– Newspaper’s accuracy holds it all together

ECONOMIC REASONS WHY JOURNALISTS ARE THREATENED BY BLOGS

Meanwhile…Bloggers have no overheadCan stick with a story forever Can specialize in totally narrow “beats” with expertiseNot expected to be accurateCan target really narrow segmentsMay 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?