I traveled to lots of newspapers and press association conferences in the three years I worked for the American Press Institute. I heard lots of editors, publishers, journalists and newspaper leaders talk about blogging and other aspects of digital journalism and innovation. So I say with great confidence that disdain for bloggers is widespread (though certainly not universal) in the newspaper business.
I even saw it in a trip to Siberia last year. When Russian speakers were discussing journalism issues at a conference I attended in Barnaul, I relied heavily on interpreters softly providing simultaneous translation. But when one speaker spat out the word “blogger,” I recognized without translation. The scorn leaped across the language barrier, sounding identical to American newspaper publishers using the same word.
A favorite myth newspaper people keep repeating about bloggers is that they would have nothing to write about without newspapers. The respected Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism even produced a biased, flawed study, providing statistics for newspapers to cite (and, interestingly, some more critical numbers that didn’t get nearly as much attention from newspapers, whose leaders often like to preach about objectivity).
The Tri-City Herald repeated this myth in an editorial Wednesday. And HyperlocalBlogger Matt McGee called the Herald on its shoddy journalism in a devastating post, This is the sound of a scared newspaper.
Both are opinion pieces, which is certainly a valid exercise of journalism. But even an opinion piece should base its opinions on facts and should back up its statements of fact. The editorial cites a couple facts but doesn’t link to anything. It makes several statements of fact, without offering any documentation, links or supporting facts.
For instance, the Herald proudly proclaims:
People are turning to newspaper websites as a trusted source.
Really? Wouldn’t that statement be stronger with some substantiation? The Herald might have some substantiation beyond gut feeling or wishful thinking, but since the editorial didn’t provide any, we don’t know. However, this Zogby poll (note the link, a practice that builds credibility) shows that people trust Facebook and Twitter more than traditional media.
In contrast to the Herald piece, McGee provides extensive links to substantiate the facts that support his opinions. He doesn’t just say that newspapers also steal from bloggers; he links to an example. He doesn’t just say journalists use bloggers for research; he links to a survey of journalists.
Read them: newspaper editorial and blogger. Which is the stronger example of journalism?
Here’s a suggestion for my colleagues in the American Society of News Editors (of which I’m a member). This is a myth ASNE should address in its “myth-busting” series. The series primarily addresses myths about newspapers. I’d like to see ASNE (which last year dropped “paper” from its name) bust some of the myths newspapers help spread about digital journalism.
TBD respects bloggers and we’re delighted that so many are joining our TBD Community Network (and we’ll be announcing more today). We expect a lot more members of the network as we work out details of our advertising relationship and as we launch our site later this summer. And as we show respect for the information and insight the bloggers provide.
I have to say that I’ve gone through an evolution on my thinking of bloggers and for a while had many of the same feelings you describe above.
My feelings changed because of a few key events – I keep learning about big national news on micro-blogs.
I became more involved in responding to blog posts and realized, “If I’m doing this, other smart folks are doing so, too.”
Yes, I need to evaluate the quality of information I get on a blog, but it’s good reminder that I need to do that on anything I consume.
I don’t follow news blogs much. But I do follow tech and J blogs. And as I gained respect for those I followed, I knew I needed to re-examine my thinking.
We can fight the change or we can understand it and use it to our advantage. We’ve been down this road before. Which course shall we take?
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On one hand, I think some of the criticism of bloggers is legit. It has to do with standard journalistic practice to establish the reliability and accuracy of information being tossed about out there in cyberspace. But you’re right. The work of many bloggers are every bit as relevant and professional as that of any journalist employed by a news organization (more so, in a lot of instances).
Journalists and especially their employers better examine their own practices before they get snipey about bloggers. I think there’s been a real deterioration of standards in the editorial process that started with the contraction of editorial staffs, starting with the elimination of fact checker and copy editor positions. In the past, stories would never see the light of day without citing sources of information. Now, the push is increasingly to be the first instead of being the most accurate. It’s lazy and to continue that practice gives readers absolutely no incentive whatsoever to ever prefer info from professional journalists over that of Joe Blogger.
Honestly, if we want to preserve journalism as a profession, we need to really start engaging our audiences about what we do, how we do it, and why it has value to society.
The work of bloggers and the work of journalists employed by news organizations should be evaluated on their individual merits. But what ARE those merits? What ARE the standards to establish the reliability, accuracy, and relevancy of information?
Anyone who wants to be a relevant and legit source of news and information ought to establish their practices, abide by them, and –especially – educate their audience about them. Processes and practices should be an ongoing discussion with any audience. Without that kind of engagement, I’m not sure that journalism will be a sustainable profession in the future. Unless news organizations make the practice of journalism the heart of their business, there’s little incentive for the public to patronize them.
And I’m not sure the public yet realizes how much is at stake, either. Somebody needs to convince them. Now – before it’s too late.
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Scott, that’s an excellent comment. You might be pleased to know that such conversations are already happening between news organizations and their audiences. I’ve written about them on several occasions (Steve, I hope it’s ok to post links in comments here):
http://annatarkov.posterous.com/i-hate-to-admit-it-but-the-trib-is-doing-some
http://annatarkov.posterous.com/attention-reporters-and-journalists-this-is-h
http://annatarkov.posterous.com/attention-reporters-and-journalists-this-is-h-0
The bottom line is, media literacy is key and we should all be vigilant media critics. And yet I don’t believe most newspapers have a media criticism column (someone please correct me if I’m wrong). There are media columnists, but they only report on who gets hired and fired and the basics of their town’s media business. I’m guessing smaller publications don’t even have that. For good media criticism, you have to go online (in Chicago, I read http://beachwoodreporter.com for instance) or do it yourself as I have in several instances:
http://annatarkov.posterous.com/the-trouble-with-breaking-news
http://annatarkov.posterous.com/stay-classy-sun-times
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Thanks, Henry and Scott. Certainly some blogs live down to the stereotypes that some newspaper journalists nurture. But the generalizations in that editorial are as irresponsible as if I were to depict all newspaper editorials as shallow and failing to substantiate their facts. I see as much good journalism in blogs these days as I see in newspapers (which makes sense, because lots of bloggers, including this one, got their training at newspapers).
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Steve, would it be fair to suggest that many, if not most, of the good journalism being done by bloggers is because they are, in fact, journalists or have some kind of background in journalism?
I think it’s useful to distinguish between the practice of journalism and the business of disseminating news and information. However, I’m not so sure that either news media companies (especially at the corporate level) or the public they serve make that distinction often enough, if at all.
I think Anna really hit on the key – media literacy. One of the biggest problems in our society is ambivalence towards information and media, in general. We are ravenous consumers of information, but the public at large is essentially ignorant about the processes and motivations behind the information we ingest.
I honestly believe that our education, starting in high school and continued into college, ought to start incorporating instruction in media literacy. Real honest-to-goodness classes that not only include an understanding of different kinds of media, but that also include an introduction to the editorial process and journalistic ethics. The public needs to understand what makes information reliable and believable so they can make informed choices in life.
In education circles, there’s always a lot of talk about teaching students how to learn. These days, I don’t see how you can learn anything unless you can figure out what sources of information to trust.
Whether they are bloggers, entrepreneurs, staffers at newspapers, etc., journalists ought to be leading that charge.
While innovation is going to be vital to the future of journalism, I think a foundation of media literacy will first have to be laid. Journalists themselves are going to have establish their value to society, regardless of who their employer is.
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Good points, Scott. Absolutely, many excellent professional journalists blog as part of their jobs, as fledgling (or established businesses) and as a passion in addition to working day jobs or looking for work.
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I emailed Chris Sivula, editorial page editor at the Tri-City Herald, inviting him to comment on this post.
He sent his response by email: Thanks for the link. I enjoyed your thoughtful response to our editorial. I need to point out that we don’t view bloggers with disdain. Important contributions to journalism and to the wider world of ideas are made by bloggers every day. We wouldn’t have it any other way, even if we could. We openly acknowledged that fact in our editorial, but on hindsight it looks like we could have been clearer. That said, we continue to believe there is no substitute for the newsroom model. The Tri-City Herald’s newsroom is comprised of trained professionals who devote their working life to packaging a daily report on all of the facets that define our community — sports, recreation, government, the arts, religion, education, business and agriculture, crime and punishment, family and social life, health care and more. The same is true at community newspapers all across the country. Journalists exploring new models are creating exciting new ways of sharing information, but we’ve yet to see the innovation that diminishes the need for the coverage that local newspapers provide.
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The irony is that you promoted your blog post about the TCH in a comment on the TCH (that’s how I found it). This points to the reason why many blogs are pathetic: They tend to be echo chambers for a micro-audience and rely heavily on MSM for information. Most bloggers realize this and see the entire exercise as a communication device for their circle.
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You are entitled to your own fantasies and I won’t try to disillusion you with facts about how much bloggers and traditional media get information from each other. But my perspective on this is based on research and actual case studies. I presume since you didn’t cite facts to support your opinion that it’s just an opinion, to which you are entitled.
Also, I should correct your misuse of the wordy “ironic.” There was nothing at all ironic about my linking to the blog in a comment on the editorial. I did the same thing in Matt McGee’s blog. I also linked to the blog on Twitter. You might call it promotion. I call it fairness. If I criticize someone on this blog, I call my criticism to their attention (which I did both in the comment and in an email) and invite them to respond. I am pleased that Mr. Sivula responded.
One more thing: I don’t tolerate personal attacks in the comments here, so I removed your name-calling remark at the end of your comment.
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My name is Tom Bridge, and I am the editor of WeLoveDC.com, one of TBD’s new partners. My undergraduate degree is in political science and music, not journalism. My master’s, when it’s completed this Fall, is in history of technology. I have never taken a journalism class in my life. I don’t intend to start, but I’m not about to rule it out, either.
I do, however, run a pretty successful blog with an audience larger than the circulation of my hometown newspaper, the Davis Enterprise. I can tell you that our treatment by the newspapers here in DC has been pretty atrocious. During the blizzard, we wrote about a condom shortage at area grocery and drug stores, and we were treated as “a local blog,” by DC’s paper of record, and neither quoted nor linked for our content.
Yes, blogs don’t observe the strict externalities of journalism, but that’s part of our strength. The success of blogs in the last decade has more to do with the way they approach what they do than what rules they follow. Good blogs do follow rules, but they may not match a set of rules that journalists follow, but they’re also following their voices and their obsessions. Many wear their hearts on their sleeves, as they follow the subjects they’re interested in. That process of voicing writing, providing character and depth, is the success of blogging over the dry coverage of newspapers.
We Love DC is good because of our voice, not in spite of it. Yell at us, call us bloggers, call us thieves, do your worst, you will not affect our voice. It’s our success, not our downfall. TBD gets that, and that’s why we’re happy to be their partners.
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