Weblogs and Journalism

Some authors have outline the borderland between blogging in general, and blogging related to journalism, but their starting pooint has been a discussion of weblogs as a new genre of online publishing.

Prophecies on the Internet and Journalism

The big picture is that the internet did not bring about revolutionizing impact on journalistic communication that many had hoped and perhaps even more feared.

At first, new media form imitated traditional media before developing their own generic features. Weblogs appear to represent perhaps the first genre with a genuinely web-born format, and its key characteristic is the hyperlinks.

Features and Technology of Weblogs

The key aspects of blogginf are personality, intimacy, communality and specific. Blogs are not just technical applications, and bloggers perceive themselves as part of a community that share values, rituals and language.

A typology of journalistic weblogs:

A) CITIZEN BLOGS: JOURNALISTIC WEBLOGS WRITTEN BY THE PUBLIC OUTSIDE THE MEDIA

the population may adopt some roles: media comentators, specialized writers, amateur reporters... they monitor the work of professional media online and offline to highlight under-covered stories, expose errors or bias in reporting, and to critize poor arguments in editorials and columns. But it is obvious that citizen-blog reporters do not possess the resources and standards of professional journalism.

Some authors stress the fact that most news-related blog content is based on commentary stories produced by professional media. Tat bloggers are called "parasitics" to journalism.

B)AUDIENCIE BLOGS: JOURNALISTIC WEBLOGS WRITTEN BY THE PUBLIC WITHIN THE MEDIA

A space for audience blogs may promote a feeling of community mong readers, and this will improve brand loyalty and trust.

Thi type of journalistic weblog still needs much more experience exploring its potencial in order to assess its benefits and drawbacks for the media -audience relationship.

C) JOURNALIST BLOGS: JOURNALISTIC WEBLOGS WRITTEN BY JOURNALIST OUTSIDE MEDIA INSTITUTIONS

In this blogs, journalists can expand on issues and points of view that do not get into the media journalists work for. Weblogs allow complete editorial freedom and enable the journalist to adopt a much more interpretative or even opinative position in comparison to the standars of mainstream media. News media companies are not always comfortable with this trend. But they are several journalists who write weblogs as a parallel activity to theis media work without any troubles.

D)MEDIA BLOGS: JOURNALISTIC WEBLOGS WRITTEN BY JOURNALISTS WHITHIN MEDIA INSTITUTIONS

In this case, editorial control and stylistic requirements may not be as strict as in the news, but editors usually oversee the weblog entries as the are posted.

There are three different approaches to weblog use within the media

• Special events coverage: these blogs are born and die with the newsworthiness of the event

• Opinion columna: the limits of paper and air time do not exist, and media can offer more permanent featured writers than they can offline.

• Newa commentary: in these blogs, correspondents or specialized journalists elaborate on the stories they produce for the main outlet, and publish notes and reflection

It appears that weblogs have created a new genre in institutionalized media journalism. The author is more visible and present in the story, and the style is more persona. Journalists tend to correct themselves transparently and quickly, reacting to reader'r comments.

Significance og Weblogs to Journalism

1. Many blogs openly challenge institutional or professional journalism by offering either competing or complementary about news and current affairs.
2. Weblogs threaten to expose journalism at one of its weakest points, its lack of personal contact with readers.
3. Weblogs question the ownership of journalism on the level of profession.
4. Weblogs have not been something outside institutional media and its journalism. Several news media have included various kinds of weblogs in their online sites.

The typology proposed here can be an useful tool for researches who wish to explore:

• the exent to which the challenges posed by weblogs to journalism as a profession are actually redefining the profession
• the influence of institutional contexts in the shaping of blogging as a journalistic genre
• the tensions between editorial control and subjectivity in different kinds of journalistic blogs.