Personal publishing and blogs have had a tremendous impact on journalists around the world. For newspapers, the impacts can be seen as both positive and negative.
In my blog, I intend to dive into the effects blogging and personal publishing have had on journalists. I hope to include both personal feelings about blogs as well as research into what others are saying about blogging and journalism and how the two are, or are not, correlated.
On the positive side, journalists have so many tools to access to ensure accuracy and in journalism, accuracy is key. Blogs are just one more resource for journalists to use. Blogs can also help journalists look around and see exactly what people think about many different topics, giving them a different kind of source of information. Overall, I think the creation of blogs sets higher standards for journalists to follow.
Is a blogger and a journalist the same thing? The obvious answer is no. For one, bloggers who are paid probably make a lot more money than journalists! Though technology has given more people the opportunity to be “reporters,” I think there are several differences between a reporter and a blogger.
One difference between a reporter and a blogger is that there is no middleman, or editor, when it comes to blogging and typically, blogs are not grammatically correct. To me, editing is the main key between a reporter and blogger. I would call a blogger a citizen journalist. As those who send in photos, news releases and tidbits of information, whether submitted online or straight to the newspaper, I would say a citizen journalist is the key to revolutionizing newspapers everywhere.
Another important difference in bloggers and journalists is that journalists are supposed to be fact seekers. They seek information and they report on it. You must not only be accurate, but truthful. Bloggers do not typically have to abide by any rules and are not held to the same standards as journalists. Blogs may contain opinions, not facts, another huge difference. Journalists have guidelines to follow when reporting and are held to a different, possibly higher, standard than a blogger.
As a journalist myself, I am not intimidated by blogs. I find that they can be more useful than harmful. As technology explodes, especially in the internet world, I suspect newspapers will find ways to use blogs to help booster their success instead of letting blogs hinder success.
I find other forms of personal publishing useful to journalists and newspapers as well. The recent explosion of YouTube is just one of those forms. YouTube has allowed anyone with a camera to broadcast to the world. To me, this gives newspapers more possibilities. Journalists cannot be everywhere but everyday citizens are and at every major event, from a huge concert to a tragedy, someone took a picture or captured something picture worthy.
The most recent example I can think of is the bridge collapse in Minnesota. This was a huge event for newspapers everywhere and having YouTube and other similar sites gives news agencies the opportunity to use these videos to enhance their coverage. There were everyday, non-journalists at the scene of this tragedy, snapping pictures, taking videos and in the news coverage that followed, these pictures and videos were used. To me, this is just another tool journalists and newspapers can use.
As for the future of these technologies, I do not think personal publising will be the end for journalists. I see personal publishing, especially citizen reporting, becoming more popular and as a result, being used more by news organizations. I don’t, however, predict it will take over the role of a traditional journalist.
In my weblog, I hope to seek out evidence to the theories mentioned above. I hope to also dive more into the concept of personal publishing by having my own blog and experiencing “citizen reporting” for myself.
