Why Bloggers are Journalists

The internet brings news faster, on demand, and with an overwhelmingly large number of sources, everyday. Often times when breaking news occurs it will be reported by a blog, with a high level of accuracy, long before it ever hits CNN.com. In today’s day in age bloggers are protected by the First Amendment, journalists have become bloggers, and blogs are respected by the users of the internet.

Some History

One year ago bloggers were not considered to be a source of news, they were just merely thought of by the United States government as an online scrapbook, or collection of personal writings. According to the First Amendment in the United States Bill of Rights,

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Officially, it was not until May 28, 2006 that bloggers were recognized as journalists, through being protected by this document. According to blogger Paul Stamatiou of PStam.com

Apple filed a case claiming that AppleInsider and PowerPage make known their sources for a 2004 story on those websites revealing an in-development Apple product dubbed Asteroid, which is to be a breakout box for Garageband [An Apple application].

The court ruled in favor of AppleInsider and Powerpage, thereby giving bloggers the protection that journalists receive. This ruling was a huge step for bloggers because it proved that the government felt that bloggers have become a viable information source, through ruling in their favor. Technology blog, ArsTechnica stated,

The ruling concludes that trade secrets do not categorically transcend freedom of the press, that there is no relevant legal distinction between journalistic blogging and journalism with regards to the shield law, and that Apple’s attempt to subpoena the e-mail service provider of one of the sites was a violation of the federal Stored Communications Act.

However, Apple has taken others to court when the Judge did not rule in the blogger’s favor. In March of 2005, according to BusinessWeek.com,

A California judge issued a preliminary ruling on Mar. 3 that three bloggers who published leaked information about an unreleased Apple product must divulge their confidential sources.

Today, courts have changed their decisions due to the overwhelmingly popular amounts of blog articles popularized through social media sites like Del.icio.us and Digg.com.
Prior to the ruling on May 28, 2006, many sources claimed bloggers were not to be considered journalists. In December of 2004, Poynter Online published an article called, “What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists,” which clearly separates the two. The article discusses how bloggers should have editors, report original news, use journalist’s tools, become more ethical, and become more accurate. Poynter’s article stated,

With blogging, it’s up to the individual blogger. With no institution or organization watching over them and guiding their behavior, we can only hope that most bloggers adhere to a mission of accuracy and accountability.

Though this article is just a to help bloggers, it implies that there is a difference between journalists and bloggers.

Blogging Journalists

The internet is not only allowing new journalists to report through blogging, but many columnists and authors are doing so as well. John C. Dvorak, a weekly writer for PC Magazine and PCMag.com, reports news daily at his website, dvorak.org/blog. Dvorak’s blog is very popular and his readers often view his website in between his columns at PC magazine.
Writers have also transformed blogging into journalism, through writing news articles on their blogs. Many blogs are based towards news alone, such as Engadget.com, TechCrunch.com, and Slashgear.com, each of these sites report technology news through a weblog format. This month Engadget covered Apple CEO Steve Job’s keynote live at their “Showtime” event. With up to the minute analysis, Engadget readers were able to see exactly what Apple was unveiling to the world in real time.

10:38AM - “Today we’re starting out with films from Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax - four studios owned by Disney. Today we’re making over 70 films available online today … including Pirates of the Caribbean. They’ll be available the same day they’re out on DVD. (Engadget.com)

Supporting the Cause

There are several different organizations that recognize blogs as valuable sources of information and seek to expand news from the “blogosphere.” Sites like Digg.com and Reddit.com help to promote bloggers stories through allowing their users to vote on their favorite stories of the day. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) also fights for bloggers rights, EFF.org states, “The freedom of the press applies to every sort of publication that affords a vehicle of information and opinion, whether online or offline.”
Though there are many blogs that do produce false information there are websites that group together valuable blogs, which require a high level of quality content. 9rules.com is a blog community site that exclusively selects the best weblogs in numerous different categories. For instance, 9rules groups blogs into genres such as sports, religious, technology, culture, personal etc. Becoming a part of the 9rules community is something that many bloggers seek to do, they feature the best content in weblogs on the internet and high quality content is essential for 9rules’ members.

In closing…

The internet is growing and changing media, one year ago bloggers were forced to reveal their sources to court, but now they are protected by the First Amendment. Blogs also allows authors, columnists and journalists to write online, becoming another source of journalism. Finally, the people of the internet believe in bloggers, through promoting their stories through social media sites, fighting for their rights through the Electronic Frontier Foundation and by grouping together blogs with the highest level of content. Bloggers are producing quality content, they deserve to be respected as a source of media, and should be called journalists.