Are bloggers journalists?I was wondering, are bloggers consider as an unofficial journalist? Bloggers nowadays could write freely about anything, and almost anything. Thoughts, feelings, diaries, even interesting events and stuff that they wanted to share could be post on to the blog site. However, something which bothers me is about some of the things they blog, for example: a leakage of something private and confidential to other people. People couldn't sue or to take actions against these 'spoilers' as they are not journalist at the side of the law, as bloggers are just, well, bloggers!
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN? What would have happen if such irresponsible yet infantrated your privacy, and they would not received any punishment or summons from any side, and most importantly, THEY ARE LEGALLY ALLOW TO DO SO. We cant do anything about it.
How would you feel? For example, you are planning on giving your girl friend a special surprise party, and some busy body stuck their nose into your business and told the whole world about your plan, how would you feel? You would go crazy, am I right?
I personally feels that law should be enforced against all these bloggers, I agree with those who wanted their privacy to be protected and punished those who cross the line of privacy and confidential. Actions should be taken as if not, this kind of immorality actions would end up encourage more and more of these 'spoilers' to break into other peoples privacy.
Besides that, news spread in light speed within the blog, whether it's true or false. People only post things which brought interest to them, and they don't think about whether it's true or false. Some unwanted events would occur due to these kind of post. Example, I did not said anything bad about the company I'm working in, however, due to some gossip, a colleague of mine post something on the web which emphasize that I was backstabbing my company.
For that, I was blame by my company and I was fired. So far, there is nothing we can do to overcome these kind of problems. Even by the side of the law, we cant do anything to prevent other people to do so. How frustrating! As if they are journalist of your life and post everything about you but you cant do anything to prevent them to do so. For me, they are the evil twin of the journalists. They do give information, but not a healthy one.
These are my opinions, what's yours?
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN? What would have happen if such irresponsible yet infantrated your privacy, and they would not received any punishment or summons from any side, and most importantly, THEY ARE LEGALLY ALLOW TO DO SO. We cant do anything about it.How would you feel? For example, you are planning on giving your girl friend a special surprise party, and some busy body stuck their nose into your business and told the whole world about your plan, how would you feel? You would go crazy, am I right?
I personally feels that law should be enforced against all these bloggers, I agree with those who wanted their privacy to be protected and punished those who cross the line of privacy and confidential. Actions should be taken as if not, this kind of immorality actions would end up encourage more and more of these 'spoilers' to break into other peoples privacy.
Besides that, news spread in light speed within the blog, whether it's true or false. People only post things which brought interest to them, and they don't think about whether it's true or false. Some unwanted events would occur due to these kind of post. Example, I did not said anything bad about the company I'm working in, however, due to some gossip, a colleague of mine post something on the web which emphasize that I was backstabbing my company.
For that, I was blame by my company and I was fired. So far, there is nothing we can do to overcome these kind of problems. Even by the side of the law, we cant do anything to prevent other people to do so. How frustrating! As if they are journalist of your life and post everything about you but you cant do anything to prevent them to do so. For me, they are the evil twin of the journalists. They do give information, but not a healthy one.These are my opinions, what's yours?
21 comments:
To me, I think that blogger is almost like a journalists but still far from becoming a journalist because a journalist is mainly collects and disseminates information from time to time but blogger usually post something on his/her's blog, these blogger didn't post a topic or what happened each day, they just post something that is important like some special event or some news.I strongly agree with Koo koo zai that nobody will take action about leakage of something private and confidential of other people's data. Government should take this seriously, if anyone can simply post something as a 'spolers' or 'anonymous' and disturb on stick their xxx into other people's business, then there is no privacy. The government should take action by blocking those 'spoilers' and 'anonymous' IP address from surfing the internet for few days as a warning, or allow the other people to send reports about abusing the blog. This is a serious matter that shouldn't take it lightly. Who's with me?
I totally agree with KookooZai statement. Actually I feel that bloggers have the same characteristics with journalist but they are not in the same field. Bloggers are actually people who like to express their feelings, thought or maybe even telling people about something new. They don;t even care about whether is it true or not or maybe it's just a myth. Usually bloggers intention is to let other people know what he/she is thinking or planning to do. They don;t even care if the post they blog will hurt other people feelings or maybe will create a chaos. This is because there are many useless people who like to act as 'anonymous' or 'unknown' and post bad comments or critics about their post and makes the bloggers wondering who is he/she. Therefore for the long run, it creates a bad impression to other people on that specific post until government can't do anything about it. They can just watch the problem happens. Besides that, journalist differs with bloggers. They are assigned to create blogs or articles about what is happening around us and all of it totally relates to common sense. Even most of the article is a true by the sense it really happens in the real world. Therefore, most of the comments from outsiders are good and there a less majority of bad comments. On the other hand, i'm with you, ZS. I agree with your comment about people who like to be 'spoilers' or 'anonymous' to damage people's comments or blogs about something they don't like. Therefore, the government or relevant authorities should take deep action on this matter. If not it will be a disaster for the bloggers and maybe will effect the journalist in the future because they are in the same field.
I don't think ALL bloggers are consider as a journalist.
"A journalist collects and disseminates information about current events, people, trends, and issues." From Wikipedia.
Example of a blogger that i consider as journalist,
NicoleKiss.
A famous travel blog author, update her blog on her travel around the world. Introducing those nice places that travel agent won't bring the tour to.
Vkeong.
A famous food blog author, he introduce nice food way better than those Food channel on television.
They write their blog professionally.
Example of a blogger that i don't consider as a non-journalist.
Most Personal blog author.
Someone writing their blogs about his/her feelings, or maybe the "personal blog author favorite update", the daily report of where they went, what they ate, what they did.
Can you consider they as a journalist!?
As for me, Bloggers are "unofficial" and journalists are "official".
Journalists speak out after doing all researches about the topics and only post it after doing different researches from different sides.
Bloggers are posting everything they wanted to post in their blogs. Most probably their lifestyles, their own views on certain topics without researches. There are certain bloggers speaks out like journalists, with all kinds of statements, after doing researches. However , there is only a small popularity of bloggers doing such things.
Journalists are held by their paycheck and their job description to objectively inform the public of facts. Most probably it is like this because people rather be a blogger in order to speak out an opinion instead of a journalist if there are no paycheck. There is more freedom being a blogger. As a journalists, they have to do researches according to the topic given.
Bloggers are opinion-makers and they are only held to being truthful to what they know and what they believe to be the case. In the other hand, bloggers is the voice of the public. There is because they speaks out on their opinion and not speaking out others people opinion.
In my opinion, Bloggers are not journalists.
I personally do not agree that bloggers are journalists. Journalist is a career and who have received professional education and training, have responsibilities, and have certain skills. Journalists need to be very updated with latest news on what happening around the world and they work towards reporting it. A journalist writes the reports according to the real facts and they do research on it. Besides that, a journalist need to have a good english,therefore they need to go through a training before becoming a journalist.
In the other hand, bloggers are different in another way. Plenty of bloggers, even like me, just use this medium to write what we think and feel. A blogger just writes their opinion. Everyone can be a blogger now by just registering themselves in the websites. There are alot of websites of blogging nowadays, like the one we are using right now, blogspot.com, xanga.com,blogosphere,blogdrive.com and etc.
Bloggers do not need to have good english,in fact, they can write in any languages they feel comfortable with. They even blog with combinations of languages and they can even write it in "rojak" language. Anything,as long as they feel comfortable with it.
At the beginning,most of the bloggers use blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. But time goes by, blogger started to share about their interest in their blog, promoting their things,sharing what they got and etc. Bloggers have more freedom than journalists.
Moreover, bloggers can post any pictures that they like in their blog unlike a journalist. They can only post pictures that are being approved. Bloggers can post any pictures, for advertisement,trips,idols or etc.
Without these millions of bloggers, we’d be missing some interesting things. Because we can take these tools to use for ourselves, we have a powerful opportunity to try new things. Because of all this information, we have the ability to learn more, share faster, and discover new opportunities.
I agree with what Matthias aka. Matt2001 said. Most of the bloggers are posting their blogs as a personal blog.
Journalists has their own code of writing journals.
According to Society of Profssional Journalists (http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp), journalists works under their own code because of their professionalism.
Bloggers who follows journalists' code are very rare, therefore, most bloggers are not journalists.
For me , The journalist and blogger are just almost same ,but journalist is on Traditional media which is paper-based , like magazine ,newspaper etc ....... and blogger is on their blog, that why we called them as blogger.
I agree to KooKooZai post because at ours country , Malaysia , there are still no specific law about internet crime and blogger,so those blogger are just like a dog without dog chain , they can just run everywhere and "bite" some people, or maybe it will create some terrible impact , but they don't need to worry about anything because they wont be caught under the law. But journalist are different , they are bound to law , they cannot write something simply , if they do so ,they will be caught under the law .
I also agree with ZS that the blogger prefer to interlope into people privacy to make their blog become more famous , since blogger can earn more money by blog if the number of click is higher and higher , how selfish is that !
for what i think , government should enforce some law about internet crime and blogger ,but before that , government should enhance the education on Information Technology . If the government don't do it , the situation about this will just become worse and worse again , until someday it create a chaos which cannot be settle.
I quite agree with what Matt said in the last post BUT don't you think that both of them share the same similarities?? For example, both of their working field are the same that is writing articles or blogs that is related to the surroundings. Just that the articles they post are slightly different. Like what Matt said that bloggers prefers to write about their feelings or their daily routine, actually journalist did the same thing as bloggers but their post are more on the happenings in the surroundings. Then bloggers are allowed to do so but they think that the post will make other people feel boring and soon will lose interest on that blog. So they prefer to blog about their daily life to let people know how is his/her living life is.
Matthias aka. Matt2001 has a strong point here , of course i agree blog is use for write something about personal, but not all of the blogger will do that , in this world that got a lot of people who are lack of moral, they just think wanna to make their blog better , so that why they will write something which is interlope to other people privacy to Attract the people come and read their blog .that is just my personal thinking ..
Actually what Matt2001 pointed out is an example of journalist. If bloggers comply with Journalist's Code of Ethics and answers the W's and `H in their blogs (What, When, Where, Why, How), then they could also be considered a Journalist. I do agree that bloggers are journalist, just that they are the ones with no degrees and diploma.
@MeiFenn
Someone working for a magazine company can always create his/her own blog.
Because of they are used to their own professional writing style, they will write their blog the same way.
Maybe a game magazine reporter finish doing a research on a game, yet the company do not want to publish that article. Therefore he post in on his Game Blog.
So why blogger do not consider as journalists?
What Ethernity said was the journalist's Code of Ethics, which mostly all bloggers apply in their blogs. Therefore, they ARE cosider as journalist.
Matt2001,
That is a violation towards the company's right. All company's activity is consider confidential and no posting anywhere if no authorization is given. Yes, maybe you may think that it's correct to do so. However, this might cause lost to the company as what for people want to buy the magazine if he already post it on his blog. Therefore, that guy is violating his companies right.
Like what i said in my post, law should be enforced to deal with these kind of bloggers.
i disagree with what Meifenn comment about bloggers are not journalist. She said that journalist is career that receive professional training in education and communication skills so do professional bloggers. Actually they do have careers that makes them professional bloggers. Not like newbie bloggers who like to post blogs that is not related to their life at all because from what I saw in most blogs, they like to give bad comments about someone they don't like or hate then it will create a mass chaos and misunderstanding. This shows that bloggers are not well educated in moral values and language where they can use not proper language in writing their blogs. It will effects their future when they start communicating with other people in the outside world. I suggest that journalist should be an example to all bloggers because journalist have limitation in such as bound to the rules or can't post sensitive issues that will hurt others feelings.
Journalists should:
— Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
— Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.
— Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources' reliability.
— Always question sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Clarify conditions attached to any promise made in exchange for information. Keep promises.
— Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
— Never distort the content of news photos or video. Image enhancement for technical clarity is always permissible. Label montages and photo illustrations.
— Avoid misleading re-enactments or staged news events. If re-enactment is necessary to tell a story, label it.
— Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story
— Never plagiarize.
— Tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so.
— Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.
— Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.
— Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
— Give voice to the voiceless; official and unofficial sources of information can be equally valid.
— Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
— Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.
— Recognize a special obligation to ensure that the public's business is conducted in the open and that government records are open to inspection.
(quote from Journalist's Code of Ethics)
I disagree with KooKooZai's statement about "which mostly all bloggers apply in their blogs"
In July 2006 the Pew Internet & American Life Project estimated that the US "blog population has grown to about 12 million American adults"
There are 12 million of bloggers around US. This statistics is done in US only this statistics is not include the bloggers around the world. If there are 12 million bloggers around US, there would not be much bloggers who is following the Journalist's Code of Ethics. Besides that, there are more codes of journalists besides that I have stated on top.
If all of the bloggers are following the codes, there will be 12 million journalists in US.
If most of the bloggers are considered as journalists, there would not be any journalists exist anymore because people do not need to pay for bloggers and they have to pay to journalists.
Therefore, bloggers are not journalists, at least MOST OF THEM ARE NOT.
For what i think the blogger and journalist got its own different and same thing , so we can consider the blogger are journalists , or they are not , that are just depend on how we see the thing , that is nothing like right and wrong about is that blogger are journalist or not, and I quite agree with NickyZai comment about the moral value and language problem , it will cause many side effect as well , and the young generation also will effect by not proper language as well .
Ya I totally agree with Kong comment about bloggers and journalist are the same. The problem is how each different individual look into this matter. Maybe some will think bloggers have more freedom in creating blogs and journalists not or maybe is another way round. Furthermore regarding the language problem and moral value, if government or related authorities doesn't take serious action about this, in the long run will affect the young ones in the future because they are the future leaders in the community. If they are not well mannered from small, then sooner the whole community will be full of not professional peoples and criminals.
i also disagree that bloggers are journalist, they do not have the proffesional knowlege and deportment like jousnalists. They may be bias on the things that they write due to their personal opinion and emotion. They can lie to the readers whenever they like but journalists cannot. They must tell the truth and report the news honestly, otherwise, their reputaion will collapse. May be they can hide the cover the news that they don’t want to report or they are not given the allowance to report, but at least they cannot lie, bloggers can.
ng pei yee 1091101409
Post a Comment