Weblogs and Journalism 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 journalist 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- news 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 source 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 journalists; 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 newspaper So when I say Weblogs and journalism tools produce only that format. Blogs 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- columnists 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.