This is a new blog, created after accepting an invitation to appear on a panel at the Future of Journalism event in Brisbane, a joint initiative of the MEAA and the Walkley Foundation, on September 13, 2008. The invitation followed a debate that was drawn in part from the blog I wrote on a voluntary basis for the Byron Bay Writers Festival in July . The discussion on the Larvatus Prodeo blog that followed was all good fun, if diverting from my work. The question I posed in the festival blog was, “are the blogs the antithesis of thought?” Clearly, I don’t think so. It was good to see George Megalogenis of The Australian and Francis Wheen the British author and journalist enter the fray on a blog. Other journalists might not.
I’ve worked as a journalist for years but the festival was my first go at live event blogging. I confess to being somewhat distracted because one day of the festival was washed out and I was also there to pitch my novel to a leading publisher, something of a big deal to me.
When I was invited onto the Future of Journalism panel, after recovering from the initial shock of no fee, even for impoverished freelancers, I had to clear up a couple of misconceptions. One was that I still worked for the Financial Times. I did for many years but I’m now a freelancer. The other was that I am anti-blogging. I have blogged on and off (off lately) since 2003. Unlike most journalists I started blogging separately to my work. It was anonymous, and consequently, you will find no link. Anywhere. And when I put in the hours it was very popular and even earned a little money. Mostly I used it as a back room, a venue to vent, a testing ground with an audience, or a place to park thoughts too thin, or that I had no time, outlet, or wish to develop into journalism.
I am over the professional journalist v amateur blogger debates having wrestled in that mud field some years ago. Much more interesting to me is how bloggers, (and when I say bloggers I think the definition is widening all the time) can fulfill some of the important functions of journalism, and how journalists can bring blogging into their practice, indeed how they must. More on that later too. My perspective is from that of a long-time journalist and part-time tutor. At the risk of being too much like the old fashioned broadsheet kind of journalist that in part I will always be, I’ll stop now and say more in a later post.
Oh, and more about the title of this blog later.
3 Comments
September 7, 2008 at 4:31 am
http://snurb.info/node/866 – Here is a link to a blog by fellow panelist Axel Bruns.
September 7, 2008 at 10:36 am
From my perspective the question of amateur vs. professional in the context of blogging is interesting academically, but it isn’t practical to the person on the street. To most people, the question is similar to asking who is a professional and who is an amateur athlete at the Olympics.
It seems to me that the area where this question of pro vs amateur bears ENORMOUS importance is legally. Western society has a long legal tradition of offering special protections to a “Journalist.” The US congress attempted to tackle that definition recently with the “The Free Flow of Information Act of 2007.” Disclosure to the judiciary of confidential sources, protection of journalists from demands to turn over story notes, and other pressures make the definition of “journalist” critical to the continued freedom of the press.
It’s important to bear in mind what our future is likely to look like. The future isn’t going to be about putting out a simple blog, or a website. Our future will be about putting our whole lives on the web. It will be about having avatars like the ones already seen on Facebook, and having multiple facets of ourselves that interact and constantly communicate using all the rich media that immersive 3-d allows. As this happens, how we define “journalist” will change rapidly. How we consume and access journalism will change
At the same time, what constitutes a “blog” is already a moving target. The old contraction of “web log” has already grown tighter than a waist band at an all you can eat feast. As the web and how we use it evolves, the term blog will become more and more diverse.
The problem is that any legally codified definition of what is a journalist or blog will never be able to keep up with the pace of change. Government of any kind is really terrible at arriving at a solution for this. What I hope the “Future of Journalism” will help do is to lay the foundations of a framework for a case by case analysis of how people might determine what is a blog, and what pro vs amateur means.
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message, however many electrons were seriously inconvenienced.
September 11, 2008 at 5:26 am
Ian, thanks, you raise some great points. First of all the old construction of web log is diversifying, and yet the discussion is not keeping pace.
I agree it is an important issue regarding freedom of information and protections for journalists. Indeed it is probably the most significant part of any discussion of professional vs amateur.