Blogging into the future...

Ken Sands, the blogger guru at the Spokesman-Review, said it's harder to teach journalists to be bloggers than bloggers to be journalists. In other words, blogging is particularly suited to a certain type of journalism, one where the journalist is present in the narrative and offers his or her opinions and comments on the subject. Many non-editorial journalists are unfamiliar with the 1st person style of journalism because we are taught in J-schools across the country to be "objective, accurate and fair" in how we gather and present information. But what Journalism classes often don't discuss is how the information left out or how the ordering of information is a subtle, but still subjective way of influencing how readers understand information.

Readers are showing their acceptance of blogging as a new and legitimate development in journalism. Apparently, my fear that people will confuse journalism with blogging is unfounded, said Sands in a phone conversation with my journalism class. Readers know that blogging, at least the blogging done by actual reporters, is more like a sneak behind the Wizard's curtain not a directive from in front of it. It's a way to see and hear information not typically present in news stories, for example, comments on the actual reporting. Reporters can discuss how they tried to get this piece of information, or how this source said a bunch of thing illuminating the issue, but that couldn't fit in the actual printed news story because of space considerations.

Sands' best point was that its too early to tell what blogging's effect on mainstream journalism will be, but that doesn't mean that we should resist it. Instead, journalists need to embrace the potential of internet technology and take advantage of the opportunity to combine print, video and audio journalism in one place online. He's beyond worrying about the survival of print journalism because he doesn't see them as in competition, which is another good point. There's attributes of newspapers that blogs don't have, i.e. established credibility, paper that a reader can hold, and a process of production. Blogs have immediacy and subjectivity as their main defining features. The two, if taken together, could take us that much closer to accurately reflecting the human condition.