I had a dream last night. Stick with me on this one:
In my dream I was at the WWE Raw* event a few hours before things were to get started. We’re in a large room with lots of chairs, a podium, some microphones, and a lot of doors for people to come and go. Clearly, there’s a press conference starting at some point. The chairs were set up in sections, a few in the middle, some of the side, but no clear indication of who sat in what section. I sat in the back of one of the middle sections, with about 40 other empty chairs. Someone approaches the microphone and begins to announce each of the big name wrestlers, and the first to come out is the Undertaker. Since I’m at the back, he walks right down the aisle next to me, turns and growls, “That section is for the press!” Since it’s the Undertaker, I scramble up and sit in one of the side sections, all of a sudden seeing the press arrive just as the wrestlers get seated.
When I wake up I’m thinking,
“I’m a blogger, what if I was supposed to be in the press section?”
Not to make this a bit of a reach, but I think I was having a bit of a who’s-the-press quandary because of David Spinks’ post on CNN news coverage in Haiti. We’re finding more and more news sources are relying on social media for comments, pictures, and updates, but where’s the line?
When I was in St. Louis for the holidays, we watched the Weather Channel to see the progress on all the snow hitting Minneapolis. Additionally, they had all kinds of other videos sent in from viewers who were in other parts of the country getting clobbered. There were people sending in videos and pictures of sliding cars in Oklahoma, driving conditions in Texas, and slippery ice patches in Chicago.
The worst was the video taken by someone behind the wheel, driving with one hand, showing how awful the snow was and the amount of abandoned cars around them. At no point during these video posts was the Weather Channel putting in a disclaimer that people shouldn’t put their lives or the lives around them at risk just for catching weather moments on video.
Sure, that video could have come from a police officer or a plow truck driver, but in no way would I have considered it safe. And the Weather Channel is usually great about that kind of disclaimer, but it was lax during the holiday storm.
If news media is relying on getting the real news from our perspective, doesn’t that make everyone part of the media now?
Arguments around standards, policies, and ethics seem to keep the two pieces separate, but news coverage is expensive. In this economy, it’s understandable to want to broaden the net for catching the most up-to-date information. But as David says, are they relying on it too much now?
If CNN is crossing the still fine line of who is an investigative journalist and what we consider a credible source, then I want to cross the line myself and be considered part of the press. If you want to define me in terms of that world, I might be a features columnist or op/ed writer.
Do you think you should be considered part of the media? Why or why not?
*So in case you were wondering, WWE Raw was in Minneapolis on the 11th, so since I had walked by the HUGE buses and HUGE posters, I don’t doubt that the imagery got buried in my subconscious somewhere. Or it could have been that I was bummed I missed it, who knows?
I think bloggers are more important than the press. If left to their own devices, the MSM is more concerned with reporting things that reflect on their owners’ bottom lines… things that will put butts in the seat. Fluff, celebrities, scandal of the day, that sort of thing. When bloggers get onto a REAL story and more and more of them reblog, retweet, repost, and it creates a tsunami, then the MSM is practically FORCED into action. So bloggers? Keep blogging!
Thanks for the encouragement! I’ll be sure to share that in the community. I think there is a lot of speculation out there because of who cuts the paycheck might influence the content. It’s going to be interesting as we continue to see the evolution of news and blogging…
No. Bloggers should not be considered press. We’re not. We like to fluff ourselves up and think we’re more important, or fulfill the same duties, but the dull reality is that there are very few bloggers who actually pull through on such commitments. Should we gain equal access to events, etc? Sure, maybe, depending on who you are. In some cases, definitely. But we toot our own horn far too much. We still need the press, even if things are changing.
Thanks Rebecca, I think you hit on the points that can help keep the line clear instead of so gray. We as bloggers perhaps can’t consider ourselves entitled to have the same rights of the press, especially because we can break rules and policies (said and unsaid) and often do. Even for me, if I write one day with journalistic integrity, I can throw it out the window the next. Thanks for providing some food for thought even for my own blogging effots.
Yes and no. If you are a serious niche blogger like those on True/Slant or, a personal favorite of mine, Registan.net which covers Central Asia (including Afghanistan) in depth or a a career bloggers who blogs about nothing but what kinds of jobs there are, how the economy is doing, etc, then yes, you are part of the serious media because you, to some extent, know as much as journalists who keep the “beat.” I particularly like Registan as an example because many of the writers there have been to Central Asia and Afghanistan and therefore are qualified to write about it and offer an inside perspective that I don’t get from the Associated Press. However, if you are just writing about your life, you are not entirely a member of the media.
Vicki, the niche world is so interesting to think of. It allows for creation of experts, but we all deal with the predicament of what makes someone an expert. You bring up qualification and credibility as a way to help distinguish where you might fall on the media spectrum. I think it’s fair to say, self-proclamation isn’t the answer, and even I can be guilty of that.
I think it depends on who is trying to reach whom. There are a lot of bloggers who reach a specific audience and so sending them info can be helpful and inviting them to press conferences or press calls can be useful. But not all of them need to be invited. I was invited as media to an event on stem cell research, which I then blogged about for a top diabetes blog. At that moment, I was press. But I am not a journalist in the traditional sense. I think of bloggers as being more like columnists. We share personal stories and information to a wide audience, but we don’t need to stay objective and present both sides unless we think it’s valuable. So yes, I’d see we are in a sense, but it doesn’t apply across the board with everyone.
Allison, columnist is a good link for some of us. I think we can identify with that role as opposed to someone who is a hard news reporter. And like many things, there are various degrees of integrity with which we write. If there are opportunities to be included as press by association, you’ve probably demonstrated a lot of qualities on your blog that would be the same ones needed in the media world. On the other hand, if there’s very little value to what you write, you probably can’t be included.
My answer is: it depends. Increasingly, I see a lot of trained, experienced journalists striking out on their own to either tell their own stories (like former Montreal Gazette journalist Roberto Rocha) or to cover issues they didn’t have the support to cover at mainstream media outlets, which are mostly falling apart because they haven’t been able to develop a new business model yet.
Even if it’s only online and it’s 100% independent and a little outside the mainstream style, I think that’s still journalism. And I think untrained, inexperienced bloggers can still effectively become “journalists” if they hold themselves to certain standards and actually report on issues, events and people by getting interviews, first-hand information, etc.
I think bloggers are, on the other hand, still just curators of information. Journalists are that too, in a way, because they decide what to cover and how to cover it, but they’re not just regurgitating things that have already been written and adding their own opinions. Both have value, to be sure, but for different reasons.
Hi Cassandra, you brought to mind that a blog is a medium for a writer, and it’s been great for many experts who don’t get hired by publications or find books don’t get the information out there fast enough. As the news industry keeps changing, it’ll be interesting to see how blog tools continue to shape journalism. The skills of a journalist can be learned, so there’s hope for those who don’t fit standards on reporting, interviewing, etc.
Like a lot of the comments above, I think it depends on the blogger and his/her audience.
For instance as the guy in charge of DC Metblogs I get a lot of pitches from PR folks that want me to write about stuff. They mostly go unanswered but if it’s something I’m interested in I often find myself playing the role of the press- and for good reason. My site covers things in DC that I’m interesting in so if something fits I write it up.
However for my personal blog I’ve also occasionally gotten pitched based on past posts and I’ve turned them all down so far because even though I write how much I love that T-Pain app- I’m not a reviewer.
However if I was a blogger on a niche topic (say cheese) and somebody invited me to try out this new cheese, I think I’d take them up on that.
That’s why most social media outreach needs to be more event based and less press event based. There aren’t enough instances where you can consider a blogger a press outlet.
Patrick, you bring up the great point of reviewing. We all know the conversations and posts that came about because of the FTC policies. And that’s an excellent example of where we all are seeing lines drawn to clarify your role. Some are official reviewers and many of us just love (or hate) a product, service, company, etc. Our own personal policies may be what we have for maintaining integrity for the time being, but you show good examples of two different approaches.
Haha, this post made me giggle – AND think. Brilliant 🙂
I really think the same things some time too. What the line is between the professionals and amateurs, and if this line even exists anymore. Also it made me think of the time that the Washington radio station WTOP asked people to text in traffic conditions. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ridiculous.
Great ideas – journalism has to evolve, but in what way, and how?
Beth, love that you got how all my examples link together…even with wrestlers thrown in the mix.
Amateur status is so odd because in some circles, that means you’re even a step above inexperienced newbie…but on the other hand, some people think that it’s the same thing. If it’s your first day at a newspaper, are you an amateur or a professional? If you’re a blogger who has five years of publications experience, are you not a professional? So many great questions that we can explore…
I wrote about this when I FIRST started my blog – worth a look if you have some time: http://www.lifewithoutpants.com/legalpolitics/blogging-and-the-first-amendment/
In short, NO, I don’t consider myself part of the press – especially because I am not providing any news or value in that way. I agree with Rebecca – we might be giving ourselves a little TOO much credit – and at the end of the day, we still have the “press” for a reason.
Matt, thanks for sharing your post. It is a great look at the government perspective and First Amendment. I know that what we consider “press” is so different now, thanks to outlets like TMZ or The Weather Channel taking reports from anywhere. As other comments have pointed out, there’s probably movement between our worlds, but you can’t necessarily feel you get a free pass to everything and can ignore standards to protect against libel and slander. I might blur the line myself, having had some press experiences, but it’s always good to keep in mind where the actual line is drawn. Thanks Matt!
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