Is Blogging Journalism?

November 30, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

Someone on Facebook who asked to remain anonymous asked me the following question:

That's a good question. And there's no easy answer.

My view - and there are many views, most apparently more popular than my own - is that the word blogging simply indicates the technology used, just as newsprint paper is typically used for newspapers. Not everything printed on newsprint paper is a newspaper; not everything that uses blog software technology is something I would consider to be writing or journalism.

Frankly, blogging can be whatever a particular blogger wants it to be. If you want to rant online and call political figures names, that would fall under blogging - but it almost certainly wouldn't fall under journalism.

So to answer the question, I need to frame what journalism is, at least for myself. To me, journalism is the reporting of facts and connecting facts in ways that inform people. In this way, blogging can be journalism. Journalism also contains Op-Ed pieces (social commentary is an example), and in this way blogging can also be journalism. But blogging, in and of itself, is not journalism. Blogging is simply a reference to how the information is published.

A phrase that has yet to become popularly used in the Caribbean is the phrase citizen journalism. It is not professional journalism, and it should not be confused with professional journalism. However, the two can be complementary - together they can create a potent combination to spread valid information... as well as inaccurate information.

As far as practicalities, I am a member of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago - but I'm not considered a full member since I am not a professional journalist. This, I believe, is as it should be - perhaps in the future there will be a Social Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago, though I find the acronym 'SMATT' to be less than nice. However, consider that people could be 'Smatted' - it has a nice ring to it.

So is blogging journalism? I would have to say that blogging is not professional journalism, but done conscientiously it could be citizen journalism. There are professional journalists using blogs, and depending on what they are writing about the blogs might be considered professional journalism.

But for all intents and purposes, a blog does not make one a professional journalist. Loosely, it could be journalism - but not of the professional variety.

What is a blog? It's a way of publishing something. What one publishes is really what matters - and even with that said, no one without professional journalist credentials should consider themselves a professional journalist. Citizen journalist? Sure.

Recommended reading: We're All Journalists Now: The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age (reviewed on KnowProSE.com with an 8/10).

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