Comments on: Blogging and journalism: it’s a graph, not a line

By: Deeario - il blog di Tony Siino - Essere giornalisti non equivale a fare giornalismo

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:06:32 +0000

[...] di Salon, a proposito dell’essere giornalisti di fatto e non “di ordine” scrive: «I blogger possono essere giornalisti ogni volta che fanno giornalismo provando a tirar fuori [...]

By: Periodismo Ciudadano

Periodismo Ciudadano — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:58:38 +0000

[...] Scott Rosenberg en su blog unas notas de Adam Lashinsky en Fortune sobre el blogging y el periodismo y la confluencia entre [...]

By: Christov

Christov — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:33:05 +0000

I agree that there are currently no J-police. But if there were a guild or organization, perhaps the spj, that would provide a good-housekeeping seal of approval to those that promised to follow certain guidelines, and you had an ombudsperson to address complaints by readers and other journalists, you actually would have a system that policed itself and enforced a certain level of quality.Hmm, sounds like a project for some high-powered, bought-out journalists.

By: Digidave

Digidave — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:03:45 +0000

“Journalism is a process, not a product.”

That’s been my best explanation of what you are talking about above Scott.

To the commenter above. I think SPJ has a good set of guidlines: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

But it’s not something you can “enforce.” Journalism is a process of “collecting information, filtering information, distributing information” - and adding value.

You need to be accurate, fair and thorough. (objectivity is a lie).

But this is not something you can enforce - there are no J-police except the readers - and luckily the readers can now bite back really easily and enforce this themselves.

The only problem is that now the appearance of a scandal is just as bad as a real scandal. Other than that - game on!

By: Christov

Christov — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:27:09 +0000

I think I agree with you, but you are leaving out the biggest issue of all–what, exactly is a journalist? Someone is not a journalist because they cover public affairs. A dedication to finding out the truth is one part of it, but also is not a sufficient condition for being a journalist. Being a journalist means following a set of ethical guidelines, procedures and practices that have historically been found to get the reader closest to the truth in a way that is fair to all parties. A dedication to finding out the truth doesn’t make me a journalist, just as a dedication to justice in the form of punching the guy who insulted me doesn’t make me a part of the legal system. It’s they network of established practices that makes a journalist. Americans don’t like procedures, and journalists don’t like to think of themselves as part of a system, so this idea may not find much acceptance.

I think eventually there needs to be an established code for journalism, and if someone claims to practice journalism they have to follow the code and put this claim on their website. All this talk of “standards” is too diffuse. Let’s make the standards explicit for all in a simple form that doesn’t take enrollment in J school to understand.

Chris