A real or imagined political blogger? Read Politbloggeratlarge08:
I was stuck again in a hardship location as a political blogger. This time, I at least had a car. Having a car, I suddenly realized I did not want to go out. There was danger out there. I was at a small seventh-floor condo overlooking San Francisco Bay. My car was below to the left, in a space for owners. Standing on the balcony, I felt the warm August breezes. Everything on the surface appeared to be calm.
Pulling myself away from a reverie, I went back inside to work. The TV sounds gently hummed in the background. One of my favorite news-junkie themes was playing: a live C-Span broadcast. A well-known and respected political journalist was speaking to a college audience of young journalist-wannabes.The scroll bar at the bottom of the TV screen named his timely topic: U. S. Elections and Journalism: Past, Present, Future in the Internet Age. I paused, sat down, and listened at about the time the journalist-speaker began to take questions.
Question time is what I most enjoy about C-Span live broadcasts. With young audiences the questions have particularly sharp and insightful edges. That's because students are thinking of impressing professors or each other; they have caught on to the fact that competition for a good job, or any job for that matter, requires them to speak and write intelligently, clearly, and concisely.
However, as I listened, I could not help wondering if, once employed, the political journalists included in the student audience would continue to form such intelligent questions. Might they, instead, form the expedient, less information-gathering queries once their careers are in motion?
One student prefaced his question to the speaker by telling about a learning moment for him in a journalism class. His professor had critiqued his latest column sample as a blog, not an example of journalistic reporting.
The student wondered if the speaker would give his view of distinctions between blogging and journalism.
"A blogger," the expert said, "writes a journal. That's what a blog is--an online journal. It's based on personal experience, thoughts, impressions, and opinions. It often is designed for entertainment as well as information.
"A political blog, for example," the professional journalist noted, "does not always undergo the rigorous review for political accuracy that a professional journalist's report or column has to endure."
"A blog," he continued, "can be anonymous. Professional journalists may try harder to write accurate, and therefore reliable, blogs. However, even they are not as bound by journalistic standards, if they choose not to be. They can insert much personal expression for entertainment value.
"For some bloggers," he added, "true facts may or may not be included. Some political journalists may tend to resort to outright fiction, if not careful. The same goes for attention to fact-checking.
"On the other hand," the seasoned writer went on, "journalists write information and include sources, often of different perspectives, to round out a report. Also," he noted, "the reporting journalist tries to leave out personal biases."
The student wanted a follow-up and got it: "How," he asked, "do you know when you, as a journalist, are leaving out your biases or when you focus too much on political entertainment?"
"I don't always recognize my own biases as such," the speaker replied. "I try to maintain accurate information by presenting both sides of an event or philosophical argument in the public arena. If I want to inject my personal views or entertainment alone, I should be writing op-ed pieces or humor columns instead. But, that's not what I do."
"But," the student followed-up again, "doesn't the fact that you write a political column automatically assure that your views will come in?"
"If hints of my views slip into a report, which often does happen--I admit--then I trust that readers are smart enough not to swallow everything I write. If I throw out a line, the reader does not have to swallow it." End of Post August 8, 2008 by Politbloggeratlarge08.
From the report by politbloggeratlarge08, we see general differences between blogging and reporting.
Politbloggeratlarge08 and other bloggers have a lot of freedom. They can be as creative as any writer of fiction and as controversial as any writer of op-ed columns.
Bloggers are not necessarily bound by journalistic conventions like verification, research, or accountability. It's their choice, based on professional or non-professional views they hold. They can write true things and facts or they can make up any fact or emotion for public consumption. They can do a mix of fact and fiction. Who's to know?
The above blog by politbloggeratlarge08 is an example of basic blogging. It has a factual, personal, and journal-like tone and leaves out information to help any verification of asserted details.
Opposite a blog's profile, a journalist's report must be verifiable and should include true facts or clarity when all facts are not known. This applies to print and broadcast media. It is signed by a known, verifiable name, and backed up by an organizational framework that follows certain professional standards--or aims to do so.
The politbloggeratlarge08 blog above did not include the blogger's name. It did not tell the truth about where the blogger was.
I played the part of politbloggeratlarge08 and I know that in fact I was at a bay area. However, it was not in California but was on the east coast.
I was not on the seventh floor, but the fifth. The parking lot is not to the left; it is behind the building. The only danger I faced was running out of money or gas on a dark road at night, due to high gas prices.
Second, I did not give enough facts for the reader to verify the C-Span program I claim to have watched. Do you know how many C-Span programs cover journalists and others speaking to student groups?
There really was a C-Span program like the one I wrote about for this blog example. However, I failed to report the identity of the college forum speaker, an esteemed journalist.
The dialog was an invention, partially bent for entertainment value, based on remembered facts. I embellished a bit to make my points. I did not have benefit of a recording of the C-Span session, so I wrote to present the real gist of the exchange I heard.
I could also "share' with readers of my politbloggeratlarge08 column about my trip with other campaign journalist lottery winners, to Iraq with Obama…or I could journal about the insight of following McCain in Minnesota.
Which of those events happened? Did both or either happen? You probably say "neither" and "no." Are you correct? How will you know? Haven't you heard of the lesser-known journalist lottery briefly run by one of the campaigns?
How will you discern the truth or falsity of that experience if politbloggeratlarge08 blogs about the events? Could it be true that politbloggeratlarge08 went to Iraq or Minnesota? Many things happen nationally that the major news media do not pick up.
Along those lines, some political bloggers will write and "quote" people at the RNC and DNC conventions this month. Some will label themselves "journalist," without adhering, or even knowing, journalistic standards.
How will you or I know whom to trust? We can apply some standards, and check the writers biographies online.
Even then, we will not likely be sure of all the facts, unless we know and trust the professional character of the blogger and know the blogger's identity and professional reputation.
Finally, for politbloggeratlarge08's blog to be an exercise in journalism, I would need to correct all of the fictional parts of my blog article. I would need drop some of the entertainment and also identify myself, by my real or known professional writing name, to readers.
I would have to answer to an editor and to that editor's bosses on behalf of professional standards like truth, accuracy, and reliability. I would need to be accountable to a news organization.
The best news organizations expect political journalists---and all journalists, for that matter---to report facts and include sources. The most respected organizations want their reports to present different views or perspectives about a situation or inform about different reactions to an event or a proposal.
The above, in summary, covers the key ingredients and differences between blogs and journalistic reporting. I suspect that the best bloggers do try to insert journalistic elements, rather than the mix of fiction and fact of my politbloggeratlarge08 imaginary post.
Happy political blogging or journalism. Or, both, with journalistic standards applied.
(c)2008 Jane Bullard
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