I wonder why bloggers are usually regarded as journalists by the public. While their work seems similar, there are apparent differences people should know.
What journalism involves is more than blogging: the way journalists do their work is entirely different. In this era of the digital age, the public needs to know that bloggers are not and can never be a reliable source of information.
Apart from writing reports, journalists and bloggers write and publish opinions. However, how they gather facts and express their views differs.
To begin with, it is expected that responsible and ethical journalists should not be biased when writing, yet most blog posts are based solely on the author’s thoughts and point of view on a particular topic. The public needs to know that bloggers, even though they are somewhat similar to journalists, can never be a trustworthy source of information.
Journalists embark on fieldwork, conduct interviews, and take images to support their stories, whereas bloggers use material from other sources that may or may not be trustworthy. Being a journalist entails a great deal of work and legal concerns: the profession requires ethical conduct.
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It is ethical for journalists to respect their sources who wish to remain anonymous, and unlike bloggers, they must not twist in writings.
Another thing the public doesn’t understand is that journalists write succinctly. It is pathetic that many people are not always ready to understand the difference between journalism and blogging. Due to this digital age, people usually consider anything emanating from an “unsavoury” online platform as the writings of journalists. Bloggers are sole-editors, unlike journalists.
In fact, bloggers “steal” stories already written by journalists who went out and got facts, adding their perspective to it. Most readers have also turned to bloggers, resulting in a participatory culture where people can join together and provide comments.
It would be great for the public to understand the dichotomy between blogging and journalism in knowing what to feed their souls and what contents they might find trustworthy.
Sulaiman is a graduate of law and freelancer, interning at Media Career Development Network from Campus Reporters Program of PTCIJ.