Are We Journalists? What’s a Journalist? - Updated
So, I honestly wasn’t too interested in Evan Dawson’s well-meaning inquiry into the nature of blogging– it’s not about us, it’s about counteracting the pervasive right-wing noise machine, really.
But I wanted to provide another answer in addition to exile’s yesterday. The question was, are we journalists? I dunno– how do you define a journalist?
We do journalism, editorializing and analysis, all together sometimes. We do a lot of the same kind of things that journalists do:
- Follow news (and break it sometimes!)
- Cultivate and vet sources
- Interview people and write about it
- Show up at events and write what we observe
In addition to that (and here I go into infomercial mode), we provide other benefits to our readers that may have traditionally been part of journalists’ job description, but are fading due to corporate pressures (*cough*Gannett*cough*Rupert Murdoch*cough*etc*), downsizing, etc.
- Provide an “institutional memory”, so when Coopervision shuts down a Dem phonebank and then gets their threatened COMIDA grant restored by the GOP, we connect the dots. You didn’t see that connection made in the press, as far as I could see.
- Provide a perspective independent of shareholder pressure, and independent of the need to support phony bipartisanism
- Provide in-depth investigative research
Do we have a particular point of view? You bet. We do our best to be a progressive antidote to the “he said, she said, the truth cannot be known” stuff you often see in the media. But we consider ourselves progressives, and so if a Dem comes up with an idea that’s not progressive (or otherwise helpful), we have no problem telling them the idea sucks.
In our experience, though, the suckiest ideas around here tend to be conservative-based and come from the GOP, so we tend to go after the worse ideas first. 80/20 rule and all that.
So are we journalists? We don’t get paid by big media companies, but I’d argue that we do much of the same stuff as they do, as best we can, in our spare time.
[Update: DFE adds his considered opinion on the question. I thought this part was especially good:
I have often said that blogging might be thought of in many cases as “meta-journalism,†adding additional context to stories carried by mainstream media, or taking two or three stories and putting them together to paint a more complete picture that might get missed when reporting gets too far into the weeds.
He makes a lot of other really good points, too. Worth a read if you’re into this topic.]
One thing is that you are highly invested in it if you are going to run a blog. It is a labor of love, so to speak. I’m willing to bet many reporters begin to think of their work not so much as a labor of love but as the thing that pays the bills.
The news never stops, they don’t have freedom over what to say and often about what to research, and so it becomes somewhat stifling and obligatory. I’m not saying that’s the case with all reporters or writers, but I think there is a bit of that going on.
btp,
I’d say you do the “news” BETTER than many reporters, and not just because you bring a progressive view. Its because you bring that memory that you speak of, which so many young reporters cant do. I’m glad that the reporter who started this conversation has acnowledged that.
it’s not about us, it’s about counteracting the pervasive right-wing noise machine, really.
I thought that at first, but now I think our influence is much greater than that. Not that it’s about us, but that we can do more than counteract. We can act.
I agree. We now “get it percolating.”
Isn’t that splitting hairs? Isn’t enabling people to “act” a means to ending the noise machine? Then there is the entire why people should act thing. Given people a reason to know more.
How does one counter act? Act.
We’re doing more than ending the noise machine, in my opinion. That’s what I mean. There’s lots of problems that don’t have to do with the noise machine, that have to do with gaps in media coverage. And I think that what local blogs like us do best is fill those gaps.
You folks are better than journalists. btp notes above that he’s got a perspective. What a concept - acknowledging a perspective when you’re writing about topics. That’s one of the huge things lacking in mainstream media - an acknowledgement of what a reporter’s bias is, or who’s paying the bills, who’s hanging out with whom or feeding stories to whom, and how that impacts what gets reported, and more importantly, what doesn’t. If it weren’t for blogs, what would be know about Valerie Plame, the US attorneys, Haliburton and so much more? And if it weren’t for local blogs, what would have been written about the FAIR plan’s development before Maggie claimed it was developed (based on when commercials were done), how Stevie is on her payroll, the real impact of the FAIR plan, etc? You folks are terrific!
The impact you make depends on the number of people you reach. The D&C (and I’m not a big Gannett fan) has their circulation audited by a company controlled by advertisers. They have recently reported that they sell 150,000 papers Monday through Saturday (900,000 total) and over 200,000 on Sunday. In addition to that they have a web site that gets thousands and thousands of unique visitors every day and the print product is shared in restaurants, barber shops, homes, etc.
As good as your blog is, I’m sure the reach is not that long or deep, and as you know you are pretty much “preaching to the choir”
Please do not take this as an attack on your blog (which I enjoy reading and participating in), just a defense of newspapers.
You’re “preaching to the choir” when you talk about the importance of newspapers. I agree completely. I just want the D&C to do a better job.
Actually, I know of a number of independents and conservatives who read us. It would be more comfortable to preach mainly to the choir, but having a mixed audience sure does keep us on our toes, and sharper than we would be otherwise.
As has been demonstrated in some of the comments on these threads, the media reads you too. So if the media wasn’t aware of the story, or hadn’t connected the dots, you provide the basis for further investigation, a new angle, or a new story. And then the information shared on this site, though perhaps not credited to the site, is repeated in much more widely read traditional media.
Very solid post from DFE on this…thanks for adding that.
Ask Raymond S. Diraddo how much of a reach RT has
Kapowee zowee batman! Never underestimate the power of the RT! May the force continue to be with you!
Enough of this chatter now. You’re giving it all away. Let them continue to wonder where you keep the magic dust. Let them beat their mouse into oblivion every time they log on here. Let them keep trying….to…..reach………..the……………mountaintop..
…and then slide all the way down to the bottom and start all over again.
Yeah, you’re that good and we know it. ‘Nuff said