Comments on: Ideas, smart and stupid, about blogs and journalism

By: Meg

Meg — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:52:07 +0000

Good point Maryn! Bloggers definitely share credit more than traditional journalists — at least as far as I’ve seen. Not only is easier to throw in a link here and there, but pingbacks and the hope of link backs encourage crosslinking.

I must say, I really enjoy how blogging is more cooperative than competitive. It’s good for the spirit and I’ve met lots of wonderful people. Maybe it’s all those years of competitiveness that have soured some journalists to the point where they can’t stand sharing the spotlight a bit.

By: John@ScribbleSheet

John@ScribbleSheet — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:07:47 +0000

You Guys, are lucky in the USA.

In the UK our libel law is much more stringent.
We can barely mention someone by name and every sentence begins with the world “Allegedly”.

By: anne de graaf

anne de graaf — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:12:07 +0000

It is and will always be the same: journalists unwilling to lift their bottom from the chair stealing from those who do - be it in a blog, or some other forum that will surely appear in due time. The strange thing is that the first make the most money and survive longer in their protected system, whilst the reporters running around are too busy to even notice. Reporter from Belgium.

By: maryn

maryn — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:50:26 +0000

” For many years, business reporters at publications as lofty as The Wall Street Journal have “borrowed” liberally (some would say shamelessly) from the trade papers. If a journalist is tipped by a blogger, it’s only decent to refer to the source.”

I was a major-metro reporter for 15 years (now working at a website) and got sourly accustomed to seeing my stories “adopted” by the NYT without credit; that experience is so commmon that among many major-metro reporters being ripped off by the NYT is a sign you’ve arrived. I hope and believe the increasing significance of blogs to journalism will change this. Blog(ger)s by definition talk to each other and thus can talk back to journalism in a way that is not currently possible within the journalism food chain. We don’t lose in power or authority when we acknowledge the origin of our ideas; blogs know this and it’s time that journalism learned.

By: Dr John Cokley

Dr John Cokley — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:37:13 +0000

The question of whether a blogger is a journalist or not should be considered in the same light as any other technology journalists have taken up: i’ll bet there once was a time when people using ball-point pens were frowned upon by those who preferred the more traditional fountain pens and pencils; i remember well the times when people would say that film was the only way to shoot news and these new video things weren’t broadcast quality; that the composing room which smelled of hot lead and sweaty souls was “the real newspaper comp room” while the quieter and cleaner photo-set cut-and-paste version wasn’t quite kosher, never mind the contemporary one completely devoid of compositors and smell … because it’s not there any more; and “bring back the typewriter because it doesn’t crash like these new computers” was a common phrase in the 1980s. get 10 years down the track and tell journalists of 2017 that once in the past people argued about whether blogging was journalism and they’ll laugh. of course it’s journalism.

By: Meg

Meg — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:13:47 +0000

Thanks for the quotes. I think it’s really interesting how people from the traditional media are reacting so differently to blogging and the internet in general. I, and probably many of my generation, tend to take blogging for granted. I find it rather funny, then, when some people see it as a threat.

I’d like to think that most people don’t assume that all bloggers are journalists, and therefore remember to take what’s written with a grain of salt — which they should be doing anyway, even if something is written by a professional. I might be overestimating people, though.

I don’t really see a huge difference between newspapers including blog excerpts and newspapers including opinion columns like they have traditionally. I’m sure some of the newspapers are really proud of themselves for being on what they see as the cutting edge, but isn’t it really just more of the same?

By: Howard Owens

Howard Owens — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:46:01 +0000

Nothing like spouting off with an uninformed opinion, is there, Mr. Brown?