Are bloggers journalists?
Check out the conversation and post your comments at Brewed Fresh Daily in preparation for tomorrow morning’s Sound of Ideas on WCPN. I posted on this last week, but I just had another thought…
Perhaps the answer to this question really depends less on the blogger (or information source) than it does on the audience.
Case in point. I know that it’s important for my readers that I have my first post of the day up on the wenBLOG before 9AM (sometimes I make it, sometimes I don’t). It’s important that I do this though because between 9 and 10 AM my website’s front page (wendellrobinson.com which I update each morning with new content from my blogs, etc.) receives it’s heaviest level of traffic. I would be fooling myself to think that I am anybody’s chief news source, but I’ve got to believe that the growing audience and traffic I’m getting is because some readers rely on the information and content I provide.
What I’m getting at is that it’s not because someone blogs that makes them a journalist… it’s because an audience relies on that blogger’s content for information that makes the blogger a journalist.
As another example, one could use The Daily Show on Comedy Central. More young people rely on Jon Stewart for information than they do the big 3 networks combined. Is Jon Stewart a journalist? Maybe, maybe not; but his audience does rely on his program for information.
Please comment here or go to BFD and give your thoughts.
