Blogging and journalism

Slate has an interesting piece about the difficulties of defining journalism in the wake of the phenomenon of blogging. The issue has come up because of a court case in California where attempts are being made to confirm that journalists do not have to reveal their sources. Since anyone with a PC and internet access and a free software package can now set up a blog and write 'articles' of their own, then isn't anyone, by definition, now a journalist? Journalists would argue that they have specialist training, uphold certain standards and ethics etc, so they are in a special category.

On the other hand, the phenomenon of tabloid journalism in recent decades, which has seen an obsession with celebrity gossip in place of real news, and an increasing tendency to print opinion as fact, suggests that standards are not being upheld or promoted.

This would have been another interesting thing to add to my political communication course when I was at Cardiff Uni. The Slate article lists other sources which elaborate on the arguments.


Politics