Pure Blog Article... "Stand Alone Journalism"

If you are interested in Blogs as a phenomena, you should read this. I have been asked if I consider this blog 'journalism'. My usual answer is "no, it is simply a dialogue with folks who are interested in the things I write about." But defining 'journalism' has taken newsrooms, bloggers, editors and writers into uncharted territory. To say a blogger could not be a journalist is shortsighted and foolish. To define a journalist as someone who works for some further defined entity... magazine with subscriptions over xxxx, or newspaper that is printed on dead trees at least x times per month actually ends up demeaning the very craft they seek to defend.

It seems to me that most of the "bloggers are not journalists" crap is coming from those who are in fear of having their little 'protected' arena of life invaded. Well, the rest of us have had to deal with increased competition and intense market vulenerability. And yes, some of us have said equally protectionist things like "anybody with a camera thinks that they are now a photographer." Actually, they are by definition. It is beyond the thing you do that establishes your proficiency in doing it. A camera does not make great photographs, just photographs. A blog may give voice (briefly) to someone who has none, but it also may give a remarkable voice a chance to be heard.

I like the 'Stand Alone Journalist' approach. Sounds a lot like 'Freelance Photographer' or 'Marketing Consultant'... cool.

PressThink: Chris Nolan: The Stand Alone Journalist is Here...: "Chris Nolan: The Stand Alone Journalist is Here...
...And the newsroom has left the building. 'If the folks in the building want to insist that what they do has some sort of magical quality, well, today's stand alone journalists have an even better chance of becoming the next generation's most trusted names--plural--in news.'"