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Clearing the Browser Tabs – Blogging vs Journalism Tuesday Edition

Jimmie | September 13, 2011 | Comments (0)

My friend Anna asked an interesting question about blogging vs journalism on Twitter and collected some interesting responses. I don’t think anyone hit on the right answer, or at least the answer that matches my observation, and my answer really was too snide but I didn’t have a lot of time to give a more detailed response. I’ll take a stab at it here.

Both blogging and journalism are about the writer. I dare say that since at least the Watergate Era, most journalists come out of j-school with a desire to “make a difference” or “change the world”. If that’s not about the writer, I don’t know what is. It takes an incredible amount of ego to believe that and no one who does is going to truly treat any story as more important. Stories will always be a means by which the crusading journalist climbs higher and higher up the career ladder until they get to a point at which they can cover world-changing stories. But even that’s not enough. You can see journalists every day on the cable networks who flit from story to story like hummingbirds on crank. They don’t dig to the heart of the stories. They rarely come back and follow up on them. The stories aren’t important; the career and the ego are.

Of course, bloggers are often guilty of the same sin. We want to climb the ladder, too. Many of us would love a full-time writing gig and plenty of us have jumped into high-profile stories in the hopes that someone farther up the line will notice us. Writers write for ego. That’s just the way it is.

The thing is, bloggers are far more honest about it. That is the essential difference between reporters and bloggers.

Don’t forget The Delivery tonight at 9:30 PM Eastern. I’ll mark my second anniversary as a podcaster and I’ll have a guest with me for the second half who was instrumental in my decision to start the show. He’s also a pretty neat guy and you’ll like him, so be sure to get into the chatroom tonight!

And now, links!

If you have any friends in New York’s 9th District, make sure you remind them to vote for Bob Turner in today’s special election to replace Anthony “ZOMG HAXXORZ” Weiner. Turner has a very good chance to take a strong blue district away from the Democratic machine in New York State.
Over at Ending Spending, I found three ways that Social Security is worse than a Ponzi Scheme.
You know the problem with rich people? They have money and they spend it on schools.
The only thing that would have made this video by Chuck Woolery (yes, that Chuck Woolery) on Hollywood tax hypocrisy better is if it had been two minutes and two seconds long.
Duane Lester, who will be on The Delivery tonight, wrote an interesting article about his second-ever Instalanche an included a few tips for any blogger who might want some of that sweet, sweet Instatraffic. I’ve gotten a few Instalanches over the years, including an amazing two-week period where I got three, but I honestly don’t know the secret. Duane’s advice is as solid as I’ve read anywhere.
This is not good: First we gave away our manned space program, now we face a critical shortage of astronauts. Oh well. What did we need to go into space for anyhow. I’m sure the Chinese and Russians will take care of things for us responsibly and not at all with orbital mass drivers.
If you’ve ever wondered why the Harvest Moon is so big and red, here’s your answer.