A Troubled Marriage: Journalism and Blogging
The crux of professional journalism is the first amendment of the constitution, enabling the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. As with most interpretations, the definition of this fact is slanted with the ubiquity of perspective the internet provides. Blogging and its popularity is the quintessential example, and most bloggers just want to live happily ever after. Often times, that isn’t exactly the case.
While many professional journalists have rumbled that the death of their profession is the blog, many logical people know, that argument is flame bait. People visit blogs for opinion, rumor, and possibly news. People visit news for news, and rely on professional credentials for legitimate stories. Anyone basing their facts on Wonkette, Global Grind, or Huffington Post isn’t doing their due diligence.
This isn’t to say, however, that a random opine isn’t legitimate. Still, the tension exists.
We saw this, recently, in the backlash from Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union Blog contest, where many exclaimed the improper motive and suggestive pandering his press release materials conveyed. It seemed to be kicked off by popular blogger and WhatAboutOurDaughters.com creator Gina McCauley, but many felt her same sentiment. While I personally disagree with the whole ‘us versus them’ argument of new media and old media, I am empathetic to those who may have had unfavorable experiences with the old guard. My personal opinion is that lumping any group together as having a singular mindset, motive, sentiment, or goal is dangerous, and as Black tech evangelists, we should know better.
It is in that mindset that the article over at BlackPower.com frustrates me. Granted, Gina is used as the lightening rod, again, but I think NPR and The Root journalist Jimi Izrael espouses a little too much on his encounter with one blogger as the defined problem of bloggers and blogging in general:
They are smart enough and well-intentioned, but blogs are often manic Google-traps trying to get click-throughs for ad nickels, so over-done and egomaniacal that many of them can’t dialog beyond the basement.
Not only is that unfair, but it is short-sighted. Many journalists within commercial institutions have access to capital and resources. Lowly bloggers would need to mortgage a private fortune to reach the same audience. We do our best with what we have and attempt to fill a need that is often lost in the editorials, reviews, and national perspective bigger mediums must address.
In the end, it really comes down to respect, and it is obvious from his article that he felt disrespected, not only at the convention, but online and on twitter. While I can’t speak for either of them, I can say that this online space is big enough for all of us. I just think that we can all shine in our unique way without trampling, mis-characterizing, or defaming.
I know BW 2.0 can.
Category: Blogging, Digital Media, web 2.0 | Tags: black journalism, black journalist, black power, blackpower, Blogging, blogging while brown, bwb, journalism, waod, what about our daughters
About the Author Fredric is a professional web developer specializing in Drupal and PHP over at brightplum.com. Although his affinity for all things interweb borderlines on unhealthy, his wife assures him that his son will grow up just as much of a tech nerd as he is. You can also find him giving back and blogging over at ybpguide.com.
See all posts by Fredric Mitchell.
Not only is that unfair, but it is short-sighted. ————— this is very true.
Anytime you have serious change you’ll have a group of people who oppose it. They’ll oppose it because they have it good and have had it good for a number of years. They’ve been the elite secret guard if you would. Change has and always will occur it is the only constant.
I’ve heard in a number of circles people mentioning that blogging isn’t journalism. People who say this don’t get it. Writing for a newspaper, magazine or television program isn’t journalism. Newspaper, magazines and television or merely methods for distributing information the same way a blog, website, webinar, teleseminar and videos are.
When a writer does extensive research to uncover the truth as unbiasedly as possible and puts that truth to the public does it matter if that truth is told via a print newspaper, magazine, television show, blog, website, teleseminar, webinar or online video? No.
Blogging may or may not be journalism, just as writing may or may not be journalism.
“THINK, PLAN, EXECUTE!” -JaWar
That’s not my department.
@jimi
honestly, all i want is for theroot.com to fix their damn rss feed and publish those joints in full.
wtf is up with that b.s. one sentence preview?
no. seriously….
Hey Jimi, s’up.
Journalist vs Blogger is a dead argument. It’s dead because journalism is adopting and adapting blogging to stay afloat. Papers and magazines are hiring new media specialists or hoping their editors can get new media trained.
I’m not quite sure how this one example, of one woman’s behavior on a panel could signify the relationship between bloggers and journalists, or how her actions could come to be representative of all bloggers.
I’ve done both the J and the B thing for many years now and I gotta tell you that as far as ego goes, click-thrus and bylines are on par. But I don’t think that’s what’s at question here.
I guess I’m taking aback by writing about an incident that led a person to come to this though: (“Witnessing that panel,” said Amy Alexander, “is one of the reasons I have trepidation about setting up a blog or joining the blogosphere. It’s the same thing with a lot of traditional journalists, because this is the kind of discourse you’re getting.”)
It’s the kind of discourse you’re getting where and with whom? Which bloggers are you talking to and what are you talking about with them? Are you on the defensive when you engage with them bc all journalism jobs want to know if you have web or blogging experience nowadays? Or is this legit?
Overall, I’m just a in a serious cloud right now. I’m just like whoa. First, there are many trained journalists who blog. And second, there are the “untrained” who blog who don’t present “manic Google-traps trying to get click-throughs for ad nickels, so over-done and egomaniacal that many of them can’t dialog beyond the basement.”
Would you care to meet some? Just start with the community right here and then branch out to some of our extensions.
This really shouldn’t be an us vs them call at all. Keep it where it is — you weren’t happy with this one woman’s behavior.
jimi izrael here—me, of NPR, http://www.jimiizrael.com, http://www.blackpower.com, http://www.theroot.com, “women hating spew,” et al. I think that black power joint gets misread as me casting all bloggers into a dark space. Rather what I’m suggesting is, given a chance to engage, Gina made a choice to reinforce some really ugly stereotypes of bloggers.
I don’t know what Gina’s issues are with me personally, “Old Media,” Nipsey Rusell and I couldn’t care less–that “angry black woman” model is so Aunt Esther, so 1983. This was a coming together of professionals, in a professional setting. If you find me so objectionable, or find thee subject jejeune and passe, then why come across country to disrupt the panel? Why not just stay home? I invited her on the panel, and let me say it was a real show, most of which I am too much of a gentleman to share. Suffice it to say, that she didn’t change anyone’s mind about the face of bloggers, and didn’t really illuminate their role in the next media. She did get a chance to call me names and hurl accusations at me face to face, and I guess there is something to be said for confronting your critics. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the aim of the panel.
Thanks for reading.
holla!
hell all u gotta do is start blogging your journalism and create an avenue to make it work.
I agree w/the above. It’s like a throwback to when anyone could make a local newspaper or newsletter and tailor it to their region. That’s how the locals stayed up to date on everything and it’s how people were organized for a cause. There’s nothing new under the sun. It seems some need a history lesson…
I think Bloggers have a place at the table…hell bloggers have set the table and main stream media can’t seem to figure out what dish to bring.
The coolest thing about blogging is the varied and interesting voices out there. Everybody and their mama can have a rant, an opinion, a concern.
It’s a big old wide web ocean out there and baby, folks are on the water with paddles, boats, rafts, and yachts!
Good post…very thoughtful.
Thoughtful post.
So what happened with Gina?
Izreal should not talk, I have read the woman hating spew that he calls a blog over at the root. Blogging is important in a day and age where mass media is owned by a few companies. There is no such thing as an independent press. This is why they have come down so hard on bloggers, because we have the ability to speak truth to power with little to no repercussions. As soon as they find away to squash the individual blogger, blogging will become an acceptable medium of information gathering.
Bloggins is also very hard work and does not get the respect that it deserves. I have put untold hours into writing, editing and promoting my blog. For me it is a labour of love and the same cannot be said about the mass media. Try and find passion anywhere on the 6 o’clock news I dare you..