Putting to rest the debate over the value of blogs
Robert Niles at OJR has started a discussion with his post, "Are blogs a 'parasitic' medium?" (Via Howard Owens.) He was inspired to write it after hearing journalists complain about blogs at industry forums and the like.
I've heard the same thing ever since I started blogging two-and-a-half years ago. I addressed here nicely. I address it every time I'm asked about blogs by other mainstream media journalists. I'm tired of it.
Frankly, when a journalist complains about blogs, I must question their skills as a journalist. By trade, a journalist should be open-minded, inquisitive and withhold judgment until he does some reporting. I'm befuddled by some of the blanket condemnation that arises about blogs and bloggers and reporting standards. Are the complainers not doing their homework and reporting before they pass judgment? As with every other communication method, there are good bloggers and bad bloggers, interesting ones and boring ones, insightful ones and blowhards.
For all the reasons we got into the newspaper business, established journalists should have been among the first adopters of blog tools, not the last holdouts. I understand why some of us weren't....but the time is well past to acknowledge and appreciate the value of the tool. The debate is over.
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Paul O'Conner, an editorial writer and columnist for the Winston-Salem paper, invited WUNC's Laura Leslie and I to come speak to his class at UNC yesterday. Both Laura and I cover the state legislature/government/whatever-the-heck-else-is-going-on in-Raleigh beat.
I was actually a little surprised when Laura asked the class "how many of you write blogs right now," and no one raised their hands. And while they all read blogs (particularly some of the entertainment-related ones) they all seemed a little skeptical that a working journalist could have time to produce newsprint/radio and do a blog.
I didn't really get the sense that the message had filtered down that the universe of people who just write for a print edition is dwindling fast.
They had a lot of good questions, though, particularly about over-sight, editing and avoiding mistakes.
Posted on March 2, 2007 4:17 PM