Legal Research

Bloggers as Journalists

Are bloggers journalists? Can we at least learn things from journalists? If your newspaper or magazine disappears, are you going to be part of the replacement? Can you meet a professional or societal standard? Should library blogs be held to an ethical standard that matches professional norms?

Anyway, I did really like this posting "What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists" (Thanks Elyssa)

I would add that most journalists in a free society sign their work and take credit/criticism.

I wonder if the significant number of anonymous / pseudonymous bloggers in library land indicates that some don't believe that they're actually free?

Anyway, the great post above leaves off a few other comments that I would add:

Professional journalists endeavour to not engage in libel or slander. I suppose waking up in the morning and just being hurtful to others isn't bad journalism but how do bloggers know where the line is and when they might be crossinng it? I'd personally rather wake up in the morning and do good. Apparently there are some who come at the world from a different place.

Professional journalists usually know it denigrates their own reputation to engage in name calling and nasty ad hominem attacks.

Professional journalists usually sign their work or their organization's reputation and brand stands behind their work. And they make any biases or conflicts of interest are clear.

Professional journalists correct their mistakes and errors. Many even apologize for the damage done to peoples' and companies' reputation. (I am amazed at the number of library blog postings that remain posted and wrong even though the poster is quite aware that the information is false and others continue to link to the false information.)

Sometimes I think a few folks out there in library land might do with with a refresher on the balance involved in the privilege of freedom of expression that we enjoy.

I am enjoying the progress that SLA is making making on ethics guidelines. I'll look forward to seeing what's comes of it. As information professionals I think we should be able to support our opinions with research, links and citations or just say that it's a gut feeling or prejudice..

Either way, with blogs forming a keystone of many news outlets publishing strategies (e.g. USA Today, CNN, NYT, etc.), I think we're starting to see a maturation of hte format.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).