Weblogs and Weblogs and Journalism: Do They Connect? ‘… the vast majority of Weblogs do not provide original reporting— for me, the heart of all journalism.’

By Rebecca Blood

e are entering a new age of complex stories with links out to nu- written by a does not neces- information access and dis- merous primary sources. Most impor- sarily qualify as journalism for the same Wsemination. Tools that make tantly, the link provides a transparency reason a novel written by a journalist it easy to publish to the Internet have that is impossible with paper. The link does not: It is the practice that defines given millions of people the equivalent allows writers to directly reference any the practitioner, not the other way of a printing press on their desks and, online resource, enabling readers to around. The case of Jayson Blair, re- increasingly, in their pockets. Unless determine for themselves whether the cently fired from The New York Times we understand the difference between writer has accurately represented or for fabricating stories, illustrates that amateur reporting and personal pub- even understood the referenced piece. whatever the journalist’s reputation or lishing—and recognize Weblogs as just Bloggers who reference but do not link affiliation, journalism is characterized one form these activities might take— material that might, in its entirety, un- by strict adherence to accepted prin- we will not be able to fully understand dermine their conclusions, are intel- ciples and standards, not by title or the implications they have for culture, lectually dishonest. professional standing. journalism and society. Some advocates of Weblogs as jour- Let’s start with the Weblog—a fre- Are Weblogs a Form of nalism point to the Weblogs produced quently updated Web site, with posts Journalism? by industry insiders as the future of arranged in reverse chronological or- trade journalism. They argue that, while der, so new entries are always on top. The early claim, “Weblogs are a new reporters tend to rely on only a few Early Webloggers linked to selected form of journalism,” has been gradu- sources even when reporting very com- articles and Web pages, usually ally revised to “some Weblogs are do- plex stories, Weblogs written by the with a concise description or comment. ing journalism, at least part of the time.” people working in a field will naturally The creation of software that allowed As even the enthusiasts now concede, convey a more complete version of the users to quickly post entries into Weblogs used to record memories, plan news about their profession. But those predesigned templates led to an explo- weddings, or coordinate workgroups with a stake in the public perception of sion of short-form diaries, but the re- can’t be classified as journalism by any an issue—as working professionals in- verse-chronological format has re- definition. So in any discussion about variably have—are those we can rely mained constant. It is this format that Weblogs and journalism, the first ques- upon least for an unbiased perspec- determines whether a Web page is a tion to ask is: Which Weblogs? tive. Their commentary, done with in- Weblog. The four Weblog types most fre- tegrity, can be a great of accu- Note that the form preceded the quently cited are: rate information and nuanced, software. Easy-to-use software has fu- informed analysis, but it will never eled the fast adoption of the form, but • Those written by ; replace the journalist’s mandate to as- Weblogs may be created without it. • Those written by professionals about semble a fair, accurate and complete The Weblog is arguably the first form their industry; story that can be understood by a gen- native to the Web. Its basic unit is the • Those written by individuals at the eral audience. post, not the article or the page. scene of a major event; Personal accounts are more prob- Bloggers write as much or as little as • Those that link primarily to news lematic: Is an eyewitness account jour- they choose on a topic, and although about current events. nalism and, if so, when? Depending on entries are presented together on the the event? Depending on the inability page, each post is given a permalink, so Weblogs maintained for respected of another individual to compile a more that individual entries can be refer- news organizations will certainly qualify complete version of the story? Depend- enced separately. as journalism if they uphold the same ing on the skill or training of the per- Hypertext is fundamental to the prac- standards as the entire organization. son writing the account? The standards tice of Weblogging. When bloggers re- But some argue that independent sites used to determine when a personal fer to material that exists online, they maintained by journalists automatically recollection becomes a journalistic re- invariably link to it. Hypertext allows constitute journalism, simply because port are likely to vary from case to case. writers to summarize and contextualize their authors are journalists. A Weblog This leaves link-driven sites about

Nieman Reports / Fall 2003 61 Journalist’s Trade current events. There are certainly simi- Weblogs as Participatory Perhaps the biggest reason millions larities between the practices behind Media of amateur writers produce Weblogs is these Weblogs and some of the activi- that the easiest-to-use Web publishing ties required to produce a So when I say Weblogs and journalism tools produce only that format. or news broadcast. Just as a newspaper are fundamentally different, one thing have become the default choice for editor chooses which wire stories to I mean is that the vast majority of personal Web publishing to such a run, the Weblog editor chooses which Weblogs do not provide original re- degree that the two ideas are conjoined. stories to link. But bloggers are never porting—for me, the heart of all jour- When commentators talk about in a position to determine which events nalism. But Joan Connell, the former Weblogs as the future of journalism, will be reported. And just as opinion executive producer for opinion and they sometimes seem to mean, “per- use news accounts as a communities at MSNBC, has said she sonal publishing is the future of jour- springboard to present their interpre- believes Weblogs are journalism only nalism,” or “amateur reporting is the tation of events, bloggers are usually when they are edited. This will be poorly future of journalism”—but neither of very happy to tell you what they think received by those journalists who have these need manifest in the Weblog form. of what they link. embraced the form for its freedom from Whether personal publishing and But is blogging a new form of jour- professional standards and processes. amateur reporting begin to appear in nalism? Of course, bloggers unaffiliated with different forms will depend on the avail- Frankly, no. I’m not practicing jour- news organizations may state their ability of tools that allow nonprofes- nalism when I link to a news sionals to create and contrib- article reported by someone ute to other kinds of else and state what I think— publications. A Korean Web I’ve been doing something … the vast majority of bloggers site called “OhmyNews” em- similar around the water cooler will continue to have a very ploys more than 26,000 “citi- for years. I’m engaged in re- different mandate from zen reporters” who submit search, not journalism, when I articles on everything from search the Web for supplemen- journalists. birthday celebrations to po- tary information in order to litical events. The publication make a point. Reporters might is credited with helping to do identical research while writing, opinions quite frankly, unworried elect South Korean President Roh Moo- but research alone does not qualify an about placating editors, offending ad- hyun, who granted his first postelection activity as journalism. Bloggers may vertisers, or poisoning relationships interview to the site. This is amateur point to reader comments as sources with sources. reporting, but it is not blogging. of information about the items they When bloggers do report the news, I see the wide adoption of Weblogs post, but these are equivalent to letters the form is usually incidental to the as just the first wave of an age of online to the editor, not reporting. Publishing practice. When policy analyst David personal publishing. As Weblog soft- unsubstantiated (and sometimes Steven decided to document the 2002 ware evolves into content management anonymous) e-mails from readers is World Summit on Sustainable Devel- software, look for a surge of other not journalism, even when it’s done by opment, he set up a Weblog so that he kinds of online publications, many of someone with journalistic credentials. could easily post reports on each day’s which will be updated periodically in- Credible journalists make a point of events. He attended news conferences. stead of continually. If these publica- speaking directly to witnesses and ex- He interviewed conference speakers. tions employ a Weblog, it will be as an perts, an activity so rare among bloggers He summarized the proceedings in the annotated table of contents rather than as to be, for all practical purposes, Daily Summit1. But this was not a tri- as the focus of the site. Amateur report- nonexistent. umph of the Weblog form. It was made ing will become more widespread, par- Instead of inflating the term “jour- possible by the free availability of easy- ticularly with the proliferation of mo- nalism” to include everyone who writes to-use publishing software. That the bile devices that can upload photos anything about current events, I prefer end product was a Weblog was irrel- and text. These devices will be perva- the term “participatory media” for the evant to Steven’s purposes—and to sive, but little of this content will be blogger’s practice of actively highlight- those of his readers. For two weeks, widely seen, partly because there will ing and framing the news that is re- Steven was on the frontline, reporting, be so much to pick through. Such con- ported by journalists, a practice poten- and publishing news from the tent will be widely distributed only tially as important as—but different Summit. Journalism? I believe so, when it has the import of the Rodney from—journalism. though Connell might disagree. King video. Weblogs will be used in mainstream journalism, without question. But the vast majority of bloggers will continue 1 Daily Summit http://www.dailysummit.net/ to have a very different mandate from

62 Nieman Reports / Fall 2003 Weblogs and Journalism journalists. It is unrealistic to apply the cal blogging. As media participants, we Weblog Handbook.” The chapter standards of journalism to bloggers are stronger and more valuable work- about Weblog ethics can be found at who rarely have the time or resources ing outside mainstream media, rather www.rebeccablood.net/handbook/ to actually report the news. In my book, than attempting to mirror the purposes excerpts/weblog_ethics.html. Her “The Weblog Handbook,” I deliber- of the institution we should seek to Weblog, Rebecca’s Pocket, can be ately reject the journalistic standards analyze and supplement. I found at www.rebeccablood.net. of fairness and accuracy in favor of transparency as the touchstone for ethi- Rebecca Blood is the author of “The [email protected] Is Blogging Journalism? A blogger and journalist finds no easy answer, but he discovers connections.

By Paul Andrews

re bloggers journalists? Certainly will fade once the even greater conve- Blogging’s Effects on they can be. Several journalists nience of real-time, word processor- Journalism Akeep Weblogs, although only a like editing of any Web site becomes handful of them actually get paid to do the norm. Yet I believe that blogs—in tandem so by their news organizations. The Perhaps a better question to pose with another much-underestimated vast majority of journalists do not . would be, “Is blogging journalism?” medium, the e-mail list—are transform- Over the past few years I’ve asked a Does the Australian hip-hop laddie’s ing the ways in which journalism is number of them why they don’t, and categorization of his favorite local bands practiced today and perhaps are giving the most prevalent responses are that qualify on some level as reporting? Is impetus to new journalistic venues that it is not in their job description and the blog posted by a corporate infor- have not yet clarified themselves. Au- doing so would not serve their pur- mation technology manager for inter- thor Elbert Hubbard once said editors pose. They use their best reporting in nal staff consumption serving as a jour- separated the wheat from the chaff— the stories they write. What is left over nalistic venue in some sense? and then printed the chaff. Bloggers for a blog? Though reportorial contributions print, link and comment on the wheat. When I mentioned on a panel once— have been made by the Web genera- In doing so, bloggers often nudge print speaking to a group of veteran journal- tion, it is fair to say the vast majority of media to richer and more balanced ists—that I spend an average of two blogging does not qualify as journal- sourcing outside the traditional halls hours working on my Weblog each ism. If journalism is the imparting of of government and corporations. A day, an audible gasp could be heard verifiable facts to a general audience recent example is the potential for throughout the room. Who could af- through a mass medium, then most touchscreen voting machine fraud— ford to take two hours from their re- blogs fall well short of meeting the an issue that bloggers and e-listers have porting tasks every day? It’s a reason- standard. Many blogs focus on narrow aired for months but that is just begin- able question. I’m a freelancer now, so subject matter of interest to a select but ning to get attention from mainstream I can do this, but I know from 25 years circumscribed niche. And the blogs media. Just as importantly, blogs serve as a full-time reporter that there would that do contain bona fide news are as a corrective mechanism for bad jour- have been no room for blogging in my largely derivative, posting links to other nalism—sloppy or erroneous report- daily workload. blogs and, in many cases, print journal- ing. To the extent that a blogger knows On the flip side, most of the million ism. The top “news” blog, Jim something about a particular topic, he or so bloggers (it’s a tough crowd to Romenesko’s Poynter Online site, is or she can take a news report into a estimate) would not call themselves composed almost exclusively of linked more detailed and illuminating realm. journalists. Many are teenagers, work- references. Consider Google searches: And the personal viewpoint tailored to ing through their own identities and When you search on current news top- Weblogging has always played a vital connecting with other like-minded kids. ics, you get established journalism sites. role in journalism, from standing col- The majority of blogs are simply per- By contrast, searches on abstruse top- umns to the op-ed pages. sonal Web sites, posted because ics are often headed by blog links. So where’s the disconnect? If blogging software automates much of Without the daily work of print jour- bloggers can be journalists and blogs the HTML coding needed for Web pub- nalists, one wonders if even the news- contain aspects of journalism, why lication. This convenience appeal has conscious blogs would contain any real aren’t more journalists bloggers? And led some to predict that the medium news. why isn’t more blogging journalism? As

Nieman Reports / Fall 2003 63