Weblogs and journalism summary

From the perspective of journalism, weblogs can be seen as a new category of news and current affairs communication. Although most weblogs do not even pretend to be journalistic or related to current events in the sense shared by institutional media, when bloggers approach the arena of journalism, some of their working principles can challenge traditional professional standards: Conversation with the audience, transparency in the reporting process or even participatory news production are common in blogging.

The debate about whether weblogs are of significance from the perspective of journalism has changed its tune. Instead of wondering whether weblogs are of importance to journalism, the question being asked at the moment is how important weblogs are.

The fundamental idea behind weblogs is in fact quite old, at least in terms of the internet era. In many cases, the web’s horizontality was considered a threat to conventional journalism: everything argues that digital technologies will continue to grow, creating a new medium that will force all previous communications media to re-define themselves, just as radio had to do when television came along.

Most blogs are mainly personal and revolve around the feelings and experiences of the author. In addition, after blogs became a buzzword within institutional media, some individual journalists also embraced the as a new, more open way to communicate with their audience. These weblogs have a clear intention to collect, analyse, interpret or comment on current events to wide audiences and in this way perform the very same social function usually associated with institutionalized media.

There are four different weblogs: citizen blogs, audience blogs, journalist blogs and media blogs.

1. Citizen blogs: Media commentary is one of the most popular activities in the journalistic blogosphere. In some citizen weblogs, authors actually take the role of a reporter, even when the publisher himself would not purposefully pretend to be a substituting a journalist. Citizen blog reporters do not possess the resources and standards of professional journalism. When assessing their blogs, it might be better to talk about “transparency”. There is something resembling the ethics of journalism. In many ways, bloggers and journalists are in a mutually symbiotic relationship, working together to report, filter and break the news. Indeed, media journalists have started to appreciate the value of citizen journalists. This blog is being used by journalist as a source for news.

2. Audience blogs: Media companies should incorporate public weblogs into their websites as one of a range of actions to promote a more reciprocal relationship with their audiences. A space for audience blogs may promote a feeling of community among readers, foster dialogue between journalists and users, and, in the end, improve brand loyalty and trust. They can be linked to newsroom work, bt most of them are just personal blogs.

3. Journalist blogs: Professional journalists have been quickly seduced by the weblogs. They offer uncontrolled self-publishing space in which journalists can expand on issues points of view that do not get into the media journalists work for. News media companies are not always comfortable with this trend. There are a several journalists who write weblogs as a parallel activity to their media work without any troubles.

4. Media blogs: This blogs are the ones created by the media for their journalists, so they are set up inside their websites.

There are three different approaches to weblog use within the media:

- Special events coverage

- Opinion columns

- News commentary

Cesar Etxebarria Olano

Journalism 61/4th year

Changeable Monograph III/Online journalism

Weblogs and journalism - Summary and commentary

There's no doubt that weblogs are a way to communicate and give information, and that, more concretely, they are becoming a new category of news communication. Even though most weblogs have not been created in order to be journalistic, the way they share events can challenge traditional journalism.

Nowadays, the question around this fact is how important weblogs are, becuse they seem to be everywhere and around journalim. But, of course, they have their own characteristics (such as simplicity, brief and direct texts, possibility of publishing comments, hypertext links, and so on) and, depending the kind of blog they are, those characteristics also get changed.

There are four different weblogs: citizen blogs, audience blogs, journalist blogs and media blogs.

• Citizen blogs: they are also called watchblogs. Their authors don't pretend to substitute the journalist, but sometimes they take the role of a reporter. We can different 2 different subcategories: citizen blogs specialised on a particular topic and the amateur ones regarding neighbourhood events.
• Audience blogs: they are public blogs incorporated by media to improve the communication with their audience. Having them, they create kind of community feeling among the readers. They can be linked to newsroom work, bt most of them are just personal blogs.
• Journalist blogs: they are blogs writen by professional journalists, where they are able to publish things they don't write on the media they work. They have editorial freedom and they adopt a more interpretative position.
• Media blogs: this kind of blogs are the ones created by the media for their journalists, so they are set up inside their websites. Editorial and stylistic requirements are not as strict as on news and they don't have all the options blogs give (sometimmes opinions are restricted, for example).

There is another impoortant point around weblogs, which is that of the approaches used by them within the media. This is the case of the blogs created for the special events coverage, the ones around opinion columns and those specialized on news commentary.

Regardless of what each one thinks about blog, no one can deny their power in order to spread news and information, and the role they have already taken in the news sphere. Weblogs are part of communication 2.0, and we have to handle it.

Uxue Garro Irastorza

Journalism 61 - 4th Year

Changeable Monograph III - Online Journalism