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Isn’t that journalism?

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I got asked this same question on three different occasions this week. Isn’t blogging already a form of journalism? I said, it could be but not all the time and not for all bloggers.

I know we’ve talked about this topic before. What’s your take on this? As a blogger, do you consider yourself as a journalist? (If so, at what point did you feel you’re doing journalism already?)

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Written by
Abe Olandres

Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

View all posts by Abe Olandres →

36 Comments

KA
Kaye · 19 years ago

A blogger is not necessarily a journalist. If I got it right, blogging started out as (1) a log of interesting finds on the Web and (2) as a publishing activity in a diary format. I remember that bloggers used to be referred to as diarists for the simple reason that they published mostly personal accounts. It was only lately that “pro” bloggers came out when people started to fashion their blogs in a way that allowed them to earn from the venture or turn the platform as portfolios, i.e., where they post writing samples or write about their professional opinions about certain topics.

Even traditional news organizations separate blogging from news reporting. There are journalists who blog and they do so clearly as bloggers writing in a blogging format and on a blogging platform. You can see the difference when you read closely a news article and a blog entry.

While bloggers may also (and they should) stick to journalism ethics, the outputs of both bloggers and journalists are still entirely different.


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OP
op3r · 19 years ago

Nope, Its too presumptuous for me to claim I am one.

I maintain my own blog. I write everything I wanted. I even put in some news or what not from my sources on the internet. But I am not exactly sure if I am submitted to the ethics a journalist submits himself to.

And I highly doubt a media practitioner looks someone who have a blog as an equal one, much less respect to a people who have a blog and thought of himself a journalist who wants to be recognize as one.

Plus I dont go around creating that BIG BAD ASS ID hanging around my neck.

peace.


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HE
herbert · 19 years ago

It will boil to how you define journalism. If we will depend on the definition on wikipedia, “a discipline of gathering, writing and reporting news…and presenting the news articles,” hardly a blog could be considered a journalism unless you develop your own content and present them as news articles. It will also depend on how you define the word “blog,” whether it is a format of writing your own personal thoughts on a particular topic, or just a CMS for your website.

If Ricky Carandang gives his thought on Neri’s testimony, I won’t treat his entry as journalism. It just so happens that he is a journalist.

@LonelyPinoy, not all writers are journalists

Well, I consider myself as a journalist and a blogger since I have a website that is in blog form but the contents are original.


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EL
elmer · 19 years ago
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IA
Ian · 19 years ago

Nick Joaquin once said that news is “history in a hurry”. As much as blogging is a way of portraying events near or at the moment they happen, blog posts can be considered “news”.

BUT, journalism requires discipline and journalists ideally follow a code of ethics that bloggers are not bound to.


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IV
Ivy A · 19 years ago

Yes, I’d like to think of it that way. The distinction would probably be in the the blog’s content. Having said that, I do think of my blog as form of journalism.


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LO
Lonely Pinoy · 19 years ago

Yes, I consider myself a journalist because i’m into writing. Another term for blog is online journal, right? Therefore, bloggers are journalists.


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BR
BrianB · 19 years ago

hundred dollar laptop gets reviewed by pogue. Wish my laptop was made like this Amazing

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/165933694/pogue-reviews-the-olpc-307829.php


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RO
Ronin · 19 years ago

quoting the mistress of ceremonies during the last Jaime Ongpin Awards: ” Journalism is an edited process.”


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SY
sylv3rblade · 19 years ago

Depends on what you blog.
But then again the most common definition of a blog is describes an opinionated view of things right?


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ER
erjan · 19 years ago

For me, bloggers can be considered as journalist because they write.. uhh.. type..


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MA
marhgil · 19 years ago

i’m just a blogger, nothing more, nothing less :) and i’m happy with that.


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JU
jun the first · 19 years ago

well, journalism in the simplest sense pertains to keeping a journal of sorts. blogging does the same therefore i believe that all bloggers are journalists to a certain extent. do most bloggers follow the rules of journalism and adhere to the same ethical standards, i have no idea.


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KI
Kiven · 19 years ago

I am a blogger. and that is enough for me.


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CH
Chino yray · 19 years ago

thus the term… Blogism.


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AR
arnold · 19 years ago

Here’s my take on this topic:

I still have this view about journalism being tied up with news and media so:

If you are a news blogger, it’s considered journalism. You follow the same format as the traditional news reporters do. You report the same subject. You even add value by sprinkling you’re news blog articles with your own point of view. This is what I do with Search Engine Journal and Tech Blorge.

If you are a gadget/finance/music/showbiz blogger, writing/reviewing gadgets and stuff I don’t think that what you are doing can be considered part of the journalism sphere.

So to answer the question, I’m both, I write for a gadget/tech blog and news blog as well.


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BR
BrianB · 19 years ago

Nah, too much pressure. Look what happened to Ryan Block.


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SE
SELaplana · 19 years ago

I didn’t actually tried to blog like a journalist because I don’t follow the code of journalist but my own code in blogging.

what’s my code? well, it’s idiocy :-)


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