Blogging Versus Journalism

I was able to find a blog written by Jay Rosen that I thought was pretty appropriate for Print Journalism. In this blog Rosen assembled a list of differences between journalism and blogging.

1.) The weblog comes out of the gift economy, whereas most (not all) of today’s journalism comes out of the market economy.
2.) Journalism had become the domain of professionals, and amateurs were sometimes welcomed into it— as with the op-ed page. Whereas the weblog is the domain of amateurs and professionals are the ones being welcomed to it.
3.) In journalism since the mid-nineteenth century, barriers to entry have been high. With the weblog, barriers to entry are low: a computer, a Net connection, and a software program like Blogger or Movable Type gets you there. Most of the capital costs required for the weblog to “work” have been sunk into the Internet itself, the largest machine in the world (with the possible exception of the international phone system.)
4.) In the weblog world every reader is actually a writer, and you write not so much for “the reader” but for other writers. So every reader is a writer, yes, but every writer is also a reader of other weblog writers—or better be.
5.) Whereas an item of news in a newspaper or broadcast seeks to add itself to the public record, an entry posted in a weblog engages the public record, because it pulls bits and pieces from it through the device of linking. In journalism the regular way, we imagine the public record accumulating with each day’s news— becoming longer. In journalism the weblog way, we imagine the public record “tightening,” its web becoming stronger, as links promotes linking, which produces more links.
6.) A weblog can “work” journalistically—it can be sustainable, enjoyable, meaningful, valuable, worth doing, and worth it to other people —if it reaches 50 or 100 souls who like it, use it, and communicate through it. Whereas in journalism the traditional way, such a small response would be seen as a failure, in journalism the weblog way the intensity of a small response can spell success.
7.) A weblog is like a column in a newspaper or magazine, sort of, but whereas a column written by twelve people makes little sense and wouldn’t work, a weblog written by twelve people makes perfect sense and does work.
8.) In journalism prior to the weblog, the journalist had an editor and the editor represented the reader. In journalism after the weblog, the journalists has (writerly) readers, and the readers represent an editor.
9.) In journalism classically understood, information flows from the press to the public. In the weblog world as it is coming to be understood, information flows from the public to the press.
10.) Journalism traditionally assumes that democracy is what we have, information is what we seek. Whereas in the weblog world, information is what we have—it’s all around us—and democracy is what we seek.

Personally I think this list is very strong and helps sort out a lot of ethical issues that arise from blogging and journalism. For example, if journalism focuses more on the relationship between writer and reader what might that suggest about the principles guiding the journalist?

Either way, I think that journalism needs a blogging. According to Rosen it is because of journalism’s “lost point of view, vigor and perspective, in the name of objectivity, to the point of being irrelevant and boring for many people.”
Blogs are meant to give a perspective and point of view, where journalism is meant to give information and credibility. Blogs and journalism need each other and readers who aren’t writers will be able to stay interested and knowledgeable by having access to both.