A blogger Journalist? -I

An emphatic fool , a depressed activist, an open rebel, a social reformer, an unemployed thinker, a compulsive extrovert, an introvert looking for company, a narcissist, a failed Journalist, an aspiring journalist or simply a passionate person with lots of time to waste- A blogger is usually one of the above or a combination of these above.  He has found space , ample space without limits and controls. So he uses it for fulfilling any of his  hidden desires, without income.  It may be for recognition for his words, calibre, wisdom or plain networking tool. 

Why does newspaper have editorials and opinion columns? News- happenings around us is plenty and more keep coming by the second. Crime, politics, entertainment, science, research, economy, justice, the subjects keep growing. Some are plain news and some seem plain. Editorials and columns are guides to interpret any news. There are always multi angles of interpretation for any news and no news is simple. It is more or less an outsourcing of your mind work. You trust an editor or a journalist and hope to find an interpretation in his words.  A falling rupee, minus inflation, recession are news, but what do they exactly mean. We look for an expert interpretation. We assume and hope the words of a Swamination or a Amartya sen to find answers for our questions. We make some one an expert and find answers in him, simple. 

Blogs are mostly opinionated and are diluting the editorial domain. No more is the words of any expert taken as granted. People look for many opinions and are judging by themselves.  Blogs just do not add to opinions but are most probably the best opinions especially in a constrained world. Though a democracy, the media in India is highly controlled and muzzled due to various economic and political reasons. That is why the blog sphere is growing here and is somewhat welcome. However what is uncontrolled can become a poison and that is why some self control or a control by some blogger guild is essential for a future. 

Any organized media is edited and is accountable. Any word occupying in it's space should be verifiable and a violation can be expensive and time consuming in courts.  So a word of a blogger can be from an uninhibited mind or even an agitated one, while that of the organized media is streamed and organised in the best of the language possible by a professional whose bread and butter depends on the acceptance of his words and his company. A journalist is thus a blogger with a switch whose operation may be by an outsider. he should be like an actor. emote when greased and be normal otherwise. Similarly a journalist cannot and should not be taking a position, or can he? 

A blogger who can allow a switch to be incorporated in himself is a better journalist for he has the experience of yelling too loud in words  and that is why he will respect and admire silence better.

So is a Journalist a dumb Blogger?  . .... continued

see below- A 2007 view about Blogger vs Journalist

Also see a 2007 view that Bloggers are not Journalists. 

World Professional Blogger-Journalist Association [end 2008]

Are Blogs new Journalism?[ 2008]