Are bloggers journalists? This is one of the most important cultural questions facing society today....
By Tom Foremski - April 25, 2005
Here is a version of an entry I wrote for New Communications Forum, in which I postulated that one of the most important cultural questions facing society is: Are bloggers journalists?
It is an important question; because the media is part of the trusted channels of communication that society uses to think, distribute ideas, and exercise its right to free speech.
It's an important question; because the answer carries with it considerable responsibility. If bloggers are indeed journalists, then they deal in the same currency of ideas and influence as the established media.
But this fragmentation of the mediasphere, into millions of blogs, upsets society's trusted ways of distributing its ideas and free speech; and, in the process, journalism is being transformed in many ways. Print journalism, the most dominant form, is under economic threat from online media, with its lower cost business models. And the profession of journalism is under society's microscope, as millions of bloggers challenge the accepted notions of what journalism is, and who can, or should be allowed to, practice it.
The Internet is a disruptive media technology
This transformation of journalism is best understood if the Internet is understood as a disruptive force, not of the technology sector, but of the media sector. The Internet is a collection of disruptive media technologies; and blogging, RSS, wikis, podcasts, etc., are part of a second wave of powerful media technologies that are accelerating this disruptive process.
The first wave of Internet media technology was the flood of web browser technologies that enabled anyone to read a web page, regardless of the computer or operating system. Similarly, blogging allows anyone to easily publish a web page, regardless of the computer or operating system.
But blogging is more than a web browser; it is more like an "asynchronous" media technology, Geek speak for "can move both ways." And this is reflected in how the early pioneers understand this Internet 2.0 or Web 2.0 emerging phase of the Internet.
Richard MacManus, one of my new colleagues on SiliconValleyWatcher, (and ionRSS.com coming soon!), has a web site called ReadWriteWeb.com. Joe Kraus, co-founder of JotSpot, developer of a corporate wiki platform, said he'd considered using Escher's drawing of a hand drawing a hand for the logo of his company.
This two-way web concept is just emerging into the mainstream culture, having been closeted in the Geek community for the past few years. But the concept of a two-way media is more than just a handy way of describing the blogging phenomenon. It is leveling the "free speech" playing field of journalism between established and new media.
In a nutshell, bloggers can now publish their free speech, their ideas, their influence, and reach 4/5ths of the world's population for virtually nothing. I'm not saying that 4/5ths of the world's population would read the bloggers; but the reach is there, and essentially for free. It costs less than $10 per month to host a blog; and the online network of bloggers can carry the content far and wide for free.
Anyone can have a powerful web publishing platform that is near completely automated. And that upsets the channels of influence in our society, which were protected from competition because of the high cost of publishing high quality content.
In Part II: Apple's hunt for leaksters threatens to muzzle the press...
cd1915
By Tom Foremski - April 25, 2005 | Permalink | Comment
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Comments (7)
"It is an important question because the media is part of the trusted channels of communication that society uses to..."
Might be more useful to go to the root, and figure out how you judge what to trust...?
Posted: April 25, 2005 4:47 PM
You make an excellent point John, and that is what we do every minute of the day, we make those judgements on trust.
That's why blogging is not for the feint of heart, because it demands authenticity and trust, otherwise people move on.
Posted: April 26, 2005 12:05 AM
Long before a couple of bloggers were feeding us bs, journalists, advertisers, experts and politicians were doing a mighty fine job of feeding us innumerative bs. According to a recent survey conducted by Jay Leno (The Tonight Show) with the "Jaywalkers" from this year’s "Top Jaywalking Thinkers", they found that 51% of people make shit up, 105% are afraid to look dumb, 67% try too hard to impress others, and 39% belive that 41% of bloggers have hemorrhoids from sitting on their asses.
Read more here
Posted: April 26, 2005 4:54 AM
I would dissent from the view that "one of the most important cultural questions facing society is: Are bloggers journalists?" There are any number of more important cultural questions. What I would substitute is a simpler but deeper question: In what ways can blogging deliver greater value to society than traditional media?
The question of bloggers versus journalists would best be considered in hindsight, years from now, rather than trying to explicitly "engineer" social change.
Allow innovation to proceed unhindered. Let the chips fall where they may. And when the dust has settled, then we can tally the score.
-- Jack Krupansky
Posted: April 26, 2005 9:18 AM
Jack, I think that the value online publishing by the masses (washed and unwashed ;-) will deliver value to society is through a democratisation of ideas.
Traditional media is a limited commons, it is mostly the playground of those that can afford to pay to influence journalists and have their ideas heard above others, repeatedly. Blogging and its ilk (future), removes this protective barrier to the competition of ideas in society.
Posted: April 27, 2005 2:18 AM
I really enjoyed the insights of this article. At a root level, I agree that whether bloggers are journalists is one of the most important cultural questions facing us today, as the state of an increasingly jaded media has evermore influence upon global masses.
At the same time, your estimates of 4/5 of the world's population being internet accessible is preposterous. You'd be hard pressed to argue that 4/5 of the western world is internet accessible, much less 4/5 of the entire globe. On a global scale, you're looking at 1/5 at best, and probably closer to 1/8. In due time, 4/5 will be accurate (presuming our global society does not melt), however, such estimates are premature.
Posted: April 27, 2005 9:15 AM
Joey, well, 4/5ths is just an estimate and I was thinking of internet access in terms of anyone that potentially has access to a library computer or interent cafe...
Would you be happier with 3/5ths world population access? Anyway, the point I wanted to make was that that an open publishing model, a la blogging, has access to a larger pool of potential readers than a closed one based on a subscription firewall and printed distribution...
Posted: April 27, 2005 5:15 PM