Yesterday, a reader sent me a link: "Is a blogger a journalist?"
It is an interesting question. With practical impacts.
The traditional media began to implode years ago. News channels have shifted more than the Mississippi delta.
The first big change was television news. For decades, the anchors on the three broadcast channels ruled the news roost. They determined content, tone, and perception. If Walter Cronkite said it, that was what families discussed at the dinner table.
Cable television changed the news scene. News now came from a variety u of sources. Some with widely-varying views.
A similar change occurred with newspapers. The internet offers a cornucopia of sources. Some good. Some bad. Some unspeakably insipid. As a result of all these news sources, the statistics on print newspaper readers have hemorrhaged -- even on the newspaper internet sites.
And may I mention the impact some blog reporters had on the 2008 elections? I suspect former Senator Allen wishes voters had never heard of YouTube.
One source for new news is -- right here. Blogs and bloggers. What the communication professionals are now calling "community journalism."
In some cases, bloggers join together as sources for a larger entity. For example, amongst our Mexico bloggers, posts authored by John Calypso and Felipe Zapata appear on GlobalPost.
The author of the essay answers his question -- whether bloggers are journalists -- "[s]ome are, some never will be and an increasing number are reaching a point of convergence."
I like that phrase. Point of convergence. I thinks it means some of us in the blogosphere write what might be considered journalism lite.
Most of us are not journalists --in the newspaper sense. We write about what we see -- filtered though our perceptions and interests. At times, our only prime audience is us.
If my blog was part of a newspaper, where would it be located? Certainly not the news, sports, or the entertainment sections. Maybe the editorial page -- sometimes. More likely --part of a Sunday supplement.
Journalist? Probably not -- for me.
Just put me down as a converger tapping out essays -- and marking time to get back to Mexico.
And may I mention the impact some blog reporters had on the 2008 elections? I suspect former Senator Allen wishes voters had never heard of YouTube.
One source for new news is -- right here. Blogs and bloggers. What the communication professionals are now calling "community journalism."
In some cases, bloggers join together as sources for a larger entity. For example, amongst our Mexico bloggers, posts authored by John Calypso and Felipe Zapata appear on GlobalPost.
The author of the essay answers his question -- whether bloggers are journalists -- "[s]ome are, some never will be and an increasing number are reaching a point of convergence."
I like that phrase. Point of convergence. I thinks it means some of us in the blogosphere write what might be considered journalism lite.
Most of us are not journalists --in the newspaper sense. We write about what we see -- filtered though our perceptions and interests. At times, our only prime audience is us.
If my blog was part of a newspaper, where would it be located? Certainly not the news, sports, or the entertainment sections. Maybe the editorial page -- sometimes. More likely --part of a Sunday supplement.
Journalist? Probably not -- for me.
Just put me down as a converger tapping out essays -- and marking time to get back to Mexico.
