Vertigo 42
Journalists ignore the social web at their peril: here's how to fix it (Oslo, 25/10)

How blogging changes the way journalists work

So it's official: blogging does change journalists. It takes these swaggering, macho creatures, unencumbered by community ties, political or moral persuasions, friendships or other obligations and affiliations which might compromise a journalist's independence, and makes them... eh... ...human...

This might of course be taken as evidence that the naysayers were right all the time, and blogging is indeed corrupting everything that is sacred about our trade....

I'm being a bit flippant here, but Paul Bradshaw's findings on how blogging has changed the journalism of reporters who blog makes for interesting reading. 

In June, he distributed an online survey to find out how journalists with blogs felt their work had been affected by the technology. 200 blogging journalists from 30 different countries,including myself, responded.

" The responses paint an interesting picture: in generating ideas and leads, in gathering information, in news production and post-publication, and most of all in the relationship with the audience, the networked, iterative and conversational nature of the blog format is changing how many journalists work in a number of ways," says Paul in his first blog post on the findings. He's published the findings bit by bit, in what I believe will be seven posts in total, you can find all the posts that has been published so far here. Enjoy.

Comments

Journalists as "swaggering, macho creatures."

I believe I have now heard it all.

Really? I'm thinking about the journalistic myths we're being fed in journalism school about war reporters, investigative reporters etc: hard-living, hard-drinking, a touch of the scoundrel - yet 'heroic', clever reporters who land scoops all the time.

It's a rather inhuman ideal as these 'heros' don't sleep, don't get bugged down with obligations of any sort other than their deadlines (good reporters only have contact books, not friends) etc.

I've met a few of these characters actually, though not necessarily doing war- or investigative reporting, and I can tell you: living up to this myth comes at a very high price. There must be many film characters molded on this myth, though nothing springs to mind right now, only characters like Ernst Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn - war reporters.

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