The Blogger-Journalist Handbook
This is the page for The Blogger-Journalist Handbook. It provides suggestions as to how bloggers and journalists can peacefully coexist. I will continue to add to this list. Here it is now:
1. Journalists have to acknowledge that we exist.
Yes, we’re here, and not going anywhere. The ‘citizen’ journalist will be here to stay. With the advent of instant technology, Twitter, Facebook and more like them, anyone can write anything. And while we don’t have the experience, we have opinions, and a lot of them are valid and worthy for discussion.
2. Bloggers should not feel entitled
I have a blog. I pay a hosting company to host it. But I, and others like me, cannot feel that we have the ability to sway the masses just because we have a blog. We have to learn nuance, when to blast someone, when to keep our commentaries reserved, when to accuse someone of cheating and when not to. The best solution? A boot camp for bloggers, where we learn about reporting stories, sourcing, discretion. I’ve had to learn on the job, and it’s hard. It’s hard to decide what’s appropriate for posting, how it should be written. If we could take a boot camp, our ability to convey a story will be much improved.
3. Understand our boundaries: work together
Let’s face it: Newspapers are dying. With the current economic climate, the advent of free newspapers on the Internet, not as many people are buying a paper. It’s likely that all newspapers at some point will be digital. And, in essence, journalists become bloggers. They have a forum online to speak. Yet, what they have that we don’t, is a reporter’s ability. And while we have to work together, we can’t blur the lines. I’m not going to report facts on a story. Bloggers should write what they feel, write about issues, write deep, probing commentaries on what they think is important. And while reporters can do the same, that have to be reporters first and foremost, not commentators. While they report facts, we make our opinions known. While they dig for sources, we react. There is a fine line, and it should not be crossed. If you are a commentator, a Jason Whitlock or a Dan Wetzel, you can speak your mind on stories. There is a line between reporting and commentating. Bloggers are on the commentary side. And we should stay there.
