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December 29, 2004
Will we ever hear the last of memogate?
Read Blog-Gate from the Columbia Journalism Review.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2004
Your Blog or Mine?
Jeffrey Rosen writes Your Blog or Mine? in this week's New York Times Magazine, a cute piece about how blogs, and dating blogs in particular, are blurring the lines between the public and the private. "As blogs continue to proliferate," he says, "citizens will have to develop new understandings about what parts of our lives are on and off the record."
On journalism, he says:
There are two obvious differences between bloggers and the traditional press: unlike bloggers, professional journalists have a)editors and b) the need to maintain a professional reputation so that sources will continue to talk to them.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 01:59 AM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2004
True or False?
From Newsweek - Ana Marie Cox on blogging and journalism:
One way to define a blog is resume building. I advise anyone who wants a job in mainstream journalism to start a blog and write about mainstream journalism.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 11:07 PM | Comments (1)
Poynter II
In the second of two Poynter articles on journalists and bloggers, Steve Outing tells us bloggers can learn from journalists. He makes some good points about editing, reporting, accuracy and style.
In discussing ethics, he links to Flog on a blog: The next ad frontier, a Globe article about companies paying bloggers to write about them. That's not cool.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2004
Poynter
Poynter says journalists can learn from bloggers.
Coming soon - what bloggers can learn from journalists.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2004
Watchdogs
In today's article, La Shawn Barber, freelancer for the National Review Online, comments on Rathergate. She says:
The effect bloggers have had on traditional journalism as they become fact-checkers, disseminators of information, and "citizen journalists" is still in flux. But the paradigm has clearly shifted in determining what is news and who is qualified to cover it, and smaller bloggers are playing an important role.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2004
Top Ten Reasons Blogs Rock
An oldie but a goodie from Warren Kinsella.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 12:16 AM | Comments (1)
December 17, 2004
We'll miss you Vince
I stray from my familiar tune for a moment of silence for the dearly departed.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 11:08 PM | Comments (3)
December 16, 2004
No more National Post blog
The National Post's editorial blog, Accross the Board, has been shut down due to lack of commitment.
Lorne Gunter, National Post Editorial Board member, told me:
We on the edit board let our blog lapse about two weeks ago because we just didn't have time to research, write, edit AND blog. Since the first three are what we're paid for, we gave up the fourth, voluntary function, blogging.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 02:15 PM | Comments (2)
It's about time
Check out Instapundit, Media Blog, Steve Rubel and Andrew Sullivan for more.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 01:18 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2004
Editors Speak - Part III
Charlie Lewis is the Financial Post Business Editor and doesn't know much about blogs. His writer Mark Evans sure does though. Lewis says the rule of thumb for blogging is the same as for freelancing. Writers can't write stories for other publications if they haven't pitched it to their own publication first. So breaking a story on a blog before the Post is out. "That's a big no-no here," Lewis said.
UPDATE: The New York Times agrees. Toby Usnik, Director of Public Relations, wrote to me saying:
Per your query on blogging policies, The New York Times newspaper currently has only the provisions in its Ethical Journalism Guidebook that govern outside writing in general -- that it should be calm and factual, meeting the same criteria as copy that might appear in the paper under the writer's byline.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
Editors Speak - Part II
Ian Johnson, globetechnology.com and ROB technology editor, works with David Akin, Mathew Ingram and Jack Kapica. Like Kay, Johnson speaks of unwritten rules, as formal rules are yet to be written.
There's an unwritten rule that relies on their news judgement. If it's a small story, they can run with it on their blogs. If it's a bigger story, then they check back with the editor to see if it would be better placed on the main news section of the Globe or the on-line sites before going ahead with it. In other words, an inexperienced journalist is probably not going to be trusted with a blog.
Johnson says blogs are much more conversational and personal than mainstream news pieces, helping the reader relate more to that writer as a result.
As a spinoff benefit, readers often seem more willing to send feedback to the writer of a blogged piece than to journalists who wrote a news story - perhaps because the more subjective feel of the blog makes them feel more comfortable giving their own views and feedback. Basically, I think "blog-versus-news story" can be compared in a way to "news commentary show-versus-6 o'clock news broadcast." Few people are going to write in and rant to a newscaster about a segment on a nightly newscast unless they're REALLY ticked off, but they seem to have few problems with airing their views to the host of a program devoted to commentary and subjective views on a particular topic.
In another comparison, he calls blog content the bonus footage at the end of a movie, film outtakes, or the stuff that never made it into the final presentation which would otherwise be lost on the cutting room floor.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2004
Editors Speak - Part I
Jonathan Kay, National Post Comments Pages Editor, was uncomfortable commenting directly on Colby Cosh and Andrew Coyne but had some interesting things to say nonetheless.
Surprisingly, even at the Post -- a publication that boasts bloggers galore -- there are no blogging policies to point to. Kay said most journalist-bloggers understand the limits, not writing negatively about their own publication for example, without being told explicitly.
When I asked if blogging gets in the way of their work, he replied:
One phenomenon I have observed is that journalists who blog sometimes lose their discipline in terms of word count. They are used to being able to write as many words as they like on any subject they like on their blog. So they sometimes take the same liberties when it is time to submit articles to another publication.
He doesn't take issue with his columnists breaking stories on their blogs as opposed to their columns and says that bloggers have increased Post readership. Still, he says more than 90 per cent of Coyne's regular readers in the Post have no idea that he has a blog. Will blogs last anyway?
Probably. But I think a lot of people who are excited about them now will soon give up on them. They take a lot of time and they generally don't result in any income. Most people have very little time on their hands. And it is difficult to justify an activity like this that is so time-consuming and that takes you away from your family and paying gigs.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 02:51 PM | Comments (4)
Speaker's Corner - The People's Blog
Just got off the phone with Jesse McLeod and Lesley Thomson, producer/director and publication-assistant/coordinator for Speaker's Corner Alberta, two of just three people who work on the program. Both feel that their show is much like a visual blog, a blog-via-television they called it, where the every-man can have his say.
The average person doesn't often have the chance to have his say in our society. The reality is that more distinguished people with money tend to be heard as far as politics go, while others are ignored. This is a chance for anyone, no matter who they are or what they do, to make a difference. And even if they don't make a difference, it's therapeutic to know you've gotten your word out there to the masses.
Unlike Toronto's Speaker's Corner, where people can talk about anything under the sun, the Alberta booth is programmed with questions about politics, social issues, sports, careers, health care and entertainment. Producers also supplement booth footage with streeter footage for more serious issues like same-sex marriage. Although they said their show is very editorial, McLeod and Thomson were quick to compare their regulars to bloggers as opposed to columnists "because a columnist wouldn't get the facts wrong while some of our guests speak with conviction on things that are just inaccurate." Maybe that's what separates the blogger from the columnist afterall.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 01:47 PM | Comments (1)
D.G.
Dan Gillmor, We the Media author, is leaving the San Jose Mercury News for a citizen journalism project.
I hope to pull together something useful that helps enable -- and demonstrates -- the emerging grassroots journalism that I wrote about in my recent book. Something powerful is happening, it's in the early stages and I have a chance to help figure this out.
Although distracted and annoyed when I spoke to him ("Blogs as journalism is a small subset of the blog world - you shouldn't focus on that") he mustered a bit of excitement even then. "This is just the beginning of the personal media revolution," he told me.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2004
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner, has brought the blog to the sports world. He bashed journalists in a recent blog entry when a sports columnist misquoted him.
The sad part of all of this is that despite his disregard for the facts, Blackistone is one of the better columnists. That speaks volumes about his profession.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 03:37 AM | Comments (1)
December 07, 2004
Wikipedia to Wikinews
Wikipedia, a free online encycopedia, has extended itself to Wikinews, where citizen journalists report the news. Although Wikipedia has a long entry describing blogs, Wikinews doesn't yet. Read a Wired story that says Wikinews is an effort at traditional journalism even though the journalists are amateurs.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 05:29 PM | Comments (11)
December 05, 2004
Wisdom of the crowds
Three days before our last election, Andrew Coyne asked his readers for their unbiased predictions. His revised prediction: Tories - 124, Libs - 102, Bloc - 55, NDP - 26, Independents - 1. His readers weren't far off. Colby guessed 140, 91, 55, 21. Damian Penny gave the Conservatives a 107-103 win over the Grits, and Wells was one of the few to call it a 125-108 Liberal victory. "These are barely more than random guesses," he typed. "Which is why I'm putting them on Andrew's site instead of my own."
Others who voted for a Liberal win, only 72 of 279 entrants or 25 per cent, said things like "this is not the result I want to see," and "this'll be a heartbreak for me but..."
As we now know, the Liberals beat out the Conservatives (or as some of Coyne's readers like to say, the "theives" beat the "good guys") 135-99. Coyne told me:
If they wanted one party to win, they'd say they thought they will win but wouldn't bet money on it.
Although readers showed wishful thinking more than anything else, Coyne's wisdom of the crowds experiment was a great example of reader contribution.
During the election, some of the best writing was contributed by readers. It was quite sharp and funny. They used mine as an outlet. I learned things from them that I didn't know. It turned into something between a conversation and an exchange.There's a benefit to being part of the conversation. You get a connection with your readers. Whatever you're writing, you have to have your reader first and foremost - what will entertain or persuade them - and feedback from them makes it all the better. Every writer, no matter what the form, doesn't want to be isolated from the reader. Interaction always helps.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2004
Blog Wars
Read what Paul Wells calls another absurd, boring shitstorm.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 03:11 AM | Comments (0)
Microsoft joins the scene
Microsoft started it's own free blog tool - MSN Spaces - to compete with Blogger and the like. It's about time. Read more.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 02:45 AM | Comments (3)
Bloggers know how to par-tey
Just got back from the GTA Bloggers & Photobloggers party. We missed David Akin, but it was indeed good times. There were 50+ people there, beer in the bathtub, karaoke, twirling musical singers and accordion guy playing some kick ass tunes.
Best quotes of the evening:
I'm the blog nazi - Liz Vang, Toronto community livejournal master
I used to dance before I blew up...Gay penguin has a lot of typos cuz he types with his beak - Leah, gay penguin blogger
I write about aliens who make boob jokes - Brett Lamb, blam blogger
Guys on guys, no. Girls on girls, ya. Blog on blog, YA! - Kyte blogger
Bitch-ass-ho out.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 02:15 AM | Comments (3)
December 03, 2004
Word of the year
Merriam Webster's dictionary named blog the #1 word of the year. It was the first of ten most looked-up words on the site, along with incumbent, hurricane and partisan, but the dictionary has yet to provide a definition in its paper version. The 2005 11th edition will include blog as: a web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks. Funny - of all the articles I've read about this, none explained that blog is short for weblog. Not even the dictionary.
UPDATE: Urban Dictionary is ahead of its time. Its definition of blogs takes the cake.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2004
Blog Ethics
A movement to introduce ethical guidelines to blogging is currently underway, according to this Cyberjournlalist article.
Gawker publisher Nick Denton says it's important that
Someone stands up, calls people out, and keeps the blogosphere honest. And maybe it's time that we rely, not on a volunteer watchdog, but on some sort of permanent institution. So I'm going to grit my teeth, and make a proposal: that a blog ethics committee be established...This is not, at this stage, a blog publishers association, though it could be the first step towards one. The idea would be to start an open discussion -- at blogethics.org, for instance -- and then come up with some guidelines.
Cyberjournalist proposed a Bloggers Code of Ethics in April 2003. Their issues? That bloggers be fair, honest, accountable, and minimize harm.
Special thanks to Rob Washburn for the tip.
Posted by Samantha Israel at 03:12 PM | Comments (3)
December 01, 2004
Interactivity
A huge pro blogs have for journalism is that they allow journalists to connect with their readers more than ever before. They're the extension of the letter to the editor, building an interactive relationship between journalists and their readers, a relationship I think is critical.
David Akin, the first in his newsroom to open an email account, instant-messaged his readers before setting up a blog. He not only told me that his blog helps him develop a link with the community he writes on, but that his blog exists to maintain that relationship - making him a better reporter in the process.
How important is the reader-writer relationship? The greater the interaction, the greater the journalist? Or are blogs taking it too far?
Posted by Samantha Israel at 05:49 PM | Comments (5)