Nieman Reports - Journalists Trade: Weblogs and Journalism

February 12, 2004

Somewhere during my preparations for the NAHLA blog talk I came across a reference to the Fall issue of Nieman Reports (Harvard) and a rather lengthy section on weblogs and journalism. The weblog articles begin on page 59 and end at page 98 of the PDF. The articles cover a wide range of topics and view points, illustrating both the pros and cons of blogging as it relates to journalism and beyond. I will copy a description of the articles into the extended entry if you would like to read more before downloading.

In this section of Nieman Reports, bloggers and journalists (some of whom wear both hats)
write about the points of convergence and divergence of Weblogs and journalism. What
separates these forms of communication? How do they influence each other? Is what’s
happening on Weblogs changing how journalists do their jobs and, if so, in what ways? Can
news organizations embrace Weblogs and maintain the standards of the craft?
Weblogger Rebecca Blood, author of “The Weblog Handbook,” tackles the issue of how
Weblogs and journalism are connected. Many bloggers, Blood argues, are a part of what she
calls “participatory media,” highlighting and framing news reported by journalists, “a practice
potentially as important as—but different from—journalism.” Blood does not expect that
bloggers will adhere to the journalistic standards of fairness and accuracy but regards
transparency “as the touchstone for ethical blogging.” Paul Andrews, a Seattle Times
technology columnist and Weblogger, contends that blogs, acting as catalysts, “are transforming
the ways in which journalism is practiced today … [by nudging] print media to richer and
more balanced sourcing outside the traditional halls of government and corporations.” Bill
Mitchell, editor of Poynter Online, envisions Weblogs as improving journalism by helping news
organizations “become more interesting, more credible, even essential.” As he writes,
“Especially when big news breaks, it’s tough to beat a Weblog.”
Tom Regan, who cowrites two blogs on The Christian Science Monitor’s Web site, gives
examples of how bloggers “have forced traditional news organizations to change the way they
covered a big story” and examines several areas of threat that some journalists feel from
Weblogs. J.D. Lasica, a blogger and senior editor of the Online Journalism Review, observes
that blogging communities exist on “grassroots reporting, annotative reporting, commentary
and fact-checking, which the mainstream media feed upon, developing them as a pool of tips,
sources and story ideas. The relationship is symbiotic.” And he contends, blogging is beneficial
to news organizations. Former investigative reporter Paul Grabowicz, who teaches journalism
students about Weblogs at the University of California at Berkeley, believes blogging can help
journalism “to regain the public trust” by inviting readers to participate instead of seeming
impervious to correction. “… this don’t-bother-calling-me attitude—all too common in
journalism—is a message that has been taken to heart by the public.”
Sheila Lennon, a blogger and features and interactive producer at The Providence
Journal’s Web site, explains how bloggers expand the news media’s agenda “by finding and
flagging ideas and events until traditional media covers them in more depth.” She shows how
her paper’s Weblog gave readers a way to share information about Rhode Island’s deadly
60 Nieman Reports / Fall 2003
nightclub fire in February and how that “reporting” helped to shape the paper’s news
coverage. Dan Gillmor, technology columnist and blogger for the San Jose Mercury News,
uses his newsgathering approach to illustrate how blogging conversations with readers
provides ideas and information for his reporting. While he is enthusiastic about this
participatory journalism, he recognizes that “Some of this journalism from the edges will
make all of us distinctly uncomfortable and raise new questions of trust and veracity.”
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, publishes two
Weblogs and thinks that blogging—with its ability to gather information quickly and from
everywhere in the world—will have a salutary effect on news coverage. As analysis and
punditry replace more expensive news gathering operations, Reynolds says that Big Media
would “be well advised to beef up their foreign bureaus and start reporting more actual
news.” By raising funds from readers to report via Weblog from the Iraq War, freelance
journalist Christopher Allbritton showed how interactive Weblog reporting can be done.
While acknowledging that blogs are not likely to “replace The New York Times,” he writes
that “blogs should be the seasoning—or maybe the garnish—in a reader’s well-balanced
media diet.”
Eric Alterman, who writes a Weblog for MSNBC.com, shares with us thoughts from his
introductory Altercation blog column in which he ruminates on what blogs are and why he,
unlike a lot of other bloggers, likes having an editor for his blog. He says, “Ideally, I think
every blogger would benefit from having an editor—and from knowing a little bit about the
way journalism is produced (and conceived).” Mark Glaser, a columnist at Online
Journalism Review, describes bloggers’ insatiable appetite for being linked and notes that
“the attention of bloggers can’t help but make journalists do a better job in their reporting.”
Keven Ann Willey, editorial page editor at The Dallas Morning News, writes about the
paper’s new Weblog, which lets readers find out more about the thinking that individual
editorial board members bring to the process of forming the newspaper’s point of view.
“It’s a delicate thing, blogging our opinions in ways we hope will help clarify and
enhance—not confuse and degrade—what we do and why we do it,” she says. At the
Houston Chronicle, former reporter Steve Olafson was fired after he created a personal
Weblog and wrote commentary on it using a pseudonym. “My message to editors is this:
Embrace the blog; do not fear it.” Hartford Courant editor Brian Toolan explains why he
demanded that a staff editor stop writing opinion pieces on his own Weblog. “This is not an
issue of freedom of speech,” he writes. Mike Wendland, who has two Weblogs and is
technology columnist at the Detroit Free Press, describes how blogs connect him to new
story ideas. “… with blogging, when readers can add commments and suggestions to my
posts, my assumptions are routinely challenged, corrected and defended.”
Jane E. Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota,
writes about the protection Webloggers have (or don’t have) under the First Amendment.
But, as she points out, “… once somebody’s published material goes outside our
borders—which is inevitable in cyberspace—all bets are off.” Larry Pryor, who directs
the Online Program at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for
Communications, shows us how professors use a Weblog as a teaching tool with journalism
majors, who produce the blog’s content under close supervison of editors. “I’ve seen how it
[working on the blog] helps students to make their writing more concise and focused,”
Pryor says.

Posted in Blogosphere, The Media