Blogging for Dummies?

Guinnessy writes "Wired News reports that one of the most respected journalism schools in America is going to be teaching blogging as part of next semester's course. I find this quite interesting, especially considering the existing controversy over whether blogging, such as Slashdot, is real journalism or not. I still haven't made up my mind." "Blog" now takes the cake as the most ill-used word of 2002. Please draw distinctions between webpages with news, mindless link propagation, discussion sites, personal diaries or journals, etc.

Comments

Is it marketing or journalism?

[webword]

This isn't exactly related but then again maybe it is....Is it marketing or journalism?

It can be tough to decide how to define something. A blog is a blog is a blog. The material posted by kids about their lives might mean nothing to you but everything to that kid and his/her peers. If you don't like it, move along. Call it a journal or call it something else. Call it a blog, or not. Fine.

On the other hand, there are some "industrial strength" blogs out there. At a minimum, this is going mainstream, for better or worse. For example, there are blogs written by folks that are employed by Macromedia. Examples...

Mike Chambers (Flash MX):
http://radio.weblogs.com/0106797/

Vernon Viehe (ColdFusion MX):
http://vvmx.blogspot.com/

Matt Brown (Dreamweaver MX):
http://radio.weblogs.com/0106884/

And then there a blogs by the professional folks at MSNBC:

Eric Alterman: Altercation
Michael Moran: World Agenda
Cosmic Log: Alan Boyle's Diary
Chris Matthews: Hardball
Jan Herman: The Juice

It's called Indymedia

[dirtyhippie]

...and it's been there since the Seattle WTO protests. www.indymedia.org.

Blogs (and /.) are most definitely journalism!

[isaac]

Please, take a look around at your mass media outlets. Really read the articles closely and look for sources. What do you find? Much, if not most of what passes for news comes from official statements and press releases. Sometime's it's damned difficult when reading a news article to find the actual source - it's usually an off-hand clause like "Foo, according to a report by such-and-such organization" or "According to General So-and-so, bar" buried somewhere in the third or fifth paragraph. Frequently, stories may be based off of other stories - "According to the Associated Press, ..." - particularly in TV news. This sort of reporting is no better than what Slashdot provides, and I am, consequently, disinclined to call Slashdot something other than journalism.

My hunch, in fact, is that considering the various reviews, interviews, and articles, Slashdot's percentage of original content compares favorably with lots of so-called mass media outlets. In fact, it's got a big leg up on mass media insofar as one often finds the people mentioned in the stories, or people with a personal connection to the story, posting comments, giving readers a different perspective on the article. I'm not prone to hyperbole, so I won't call slashdot "visionary" or "groundbreaking" but I do call it "really cool" and, most definitely, "journalism".

Blogs, too, are journalism. Personal diaries may be the most trivial form of journalism, but it is, at least, reporting. It may not be up to the standards of Columbia, or conformant to the AP style guide, but I've read a lot of crap in "real" news outlets and a lot of informative, if non-traditional, reporting on blog sites. In any case, I'm leery of refusing to call blogs journalism, as it plays into the hands of those who would separate "journalists" from the rest of the public and confer upon them rights that are (IMO) properly invested in us all - particularly freedoms of speech and of the press.

Consider the case of Paul Trummel who has been jailed for refusing to take down articles on his website, on the grounds that he is "not really a journalist." Understand why I'm not so keen on drawing a line between "journalist" and blogger?

-Isaac

Slashdot & Journalism

[MoThugz]

From Dictionary.com...

1. The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.
2. Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.
3. The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.
4. Newspapers and magazines.
5. An academic course training students in journalism.
6. Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal.

What interests me the most is point 3, because most of the time here, people with give their views and opinions of posts. Therefore /. is more suitable to be called a discussion site or forum.

Re:'blog

[TheSteve]

'A "blog" is an online diary. Just because it's a "journal", doesn't make it journalism, by the practical definition.'

Not all what people are calling blogs are just journal and online gossip columns - there are quite a few out there that have a lot of good information and intelligent, timely conversation. I don't usually go a day without checking Metafilter, Kuro5hin, and not least Slashdot (you know where!)

These sites announce and discuss news, happenings and issues on average much sooner and with much more intelligence than more common news and media outlets - showing a wide variety of opinions and viewpoints on everything. It's easy to spot important comments, ideas, and trends when you've got the benefit of community discussion to fill out the picture. Some of these sites use voting and moderation to help elevate messages that need to be seen to the users' eye, allowing them to easily find the highlights of any discussion or issue.

There are even specialty "blogs" that offer information on more specific areas of interest. The state of the art in blogging and scripting in general is being developed and discussed right in front of your eyes at Dave Winer's Scripting News. Scripting News focuses on scripting languages (python primarily) and blogging using the Radio Userland system, a rich weblogging environment that allows the interface and performace of sites to be scripted and adjusted as much as you like. It can utilize live news feeds from other systems and sources, as well. The New York Times recently agreed to distribute NYTimes.com content to sites using Radio. Winer's site highlights the technological aspects of running blogs and gives a lot of good information and tools for creating incredible sites using technologies like XML-RPC, SOAP, python, and others. The links to other sites for their comments and viewpoints also provide a good view of issues and the community in general.

Celebrities are even doing it: Adam Curry of MTV and broadcast fame does with great results and Wil Wheaton runs a pretty good site using another blogging system called Movable Type. There are some pretty professional sites springing up using the tools available.

The timeliness of sites like Slashdot and Metafilter keep participants up to date and informed on relevant issues. We all know that to be true.

The types of functionality available to the blogging community cover a wide span of needs and purposes. If all you want is a journal that a couple of people can read - you can have that. If you want to have a place to store all of your bookmarks and discuss and share them with others - you can have that, too. If you want something that will integrate all of your news and discussion - you can have it. If you want to compete with Big Media, you're fully free and capable of doing just that, as well.

With such a wide choice of blogging themes, it's easy to see that there is room for much diversity with this technology. All roses may be flowers, but so are dandelions - Ferarris may be cars, but what I'm driving's definitely just a car! "Blog", while a catchy name, is still a broad category. It's like saying "web page" - it could mean anything. Once "blogging" is mainstream, it will be time to make some new categories and descriptions.

Not Journalism

[reallocate]

Engaging in journalism -- reporting the news -- implies a committment to a process that emphasizes accuracy and completeness.This process typically includes editorial oversight and review, multiple sources, etc. Blogs and sites like Slashdot do provide new publishing tools, but, by themselves, they are just a means to a possible end, just as blank newsprint has the potential to become a newspaper.

It isn't a blog, but Slashdot appears to be a direct descendant of BBS systems, with a mix of readers and staff posting material from other sources to a web site that facilitates reader comments. I see little evidence of anything approaching journalism here. Most real blogs that I read are more akin to newspaper columns, rather than straight journalism. Again, there's little evidence of real editorial review, but it is interesting that the blogging community has the potential to enforce some degree of fact-checking