It has been an issue that has been longed debated on. Bloggers are not officially categorized as journalists. The directives may be the same at some point but the fact remains, the method of composing articles and facts in proper format for people to understand needs to have differentiating factors.
Bloggers can be better than journalists and vice versa. However, no one has been given the proper authorization to differentiate both. For regions such as Hawaii, they can classify a blogger and a journalist and point out their differences. Here is an overview of this latest trend.
Hawaii is one 19 states that does not have a journalist shield law, designed to protect a reporter’s confidential sources. If Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Gary Chang refuses to accept Zimmerman’s claim that she is a legitimate journalist, the ruling could set a dangerous precedent for other bloggers.
There are two sides to the argument. The plaintiff’s lawyer is trying to convince the judge that accepting bloggers as journalists would create a big loophole.
There are a lot more nuances to the case, so I suggest you read the whole summary.
I’d like to think that Marketing Pilgrim would be able to claim journalist privileges, based upon the fact that we are a legitimate news source, regardless of the fact that the site is organized like a blog. However, I agree that you can’t extend that same privilege to everyone, just because they have a blog. The courts needs to establish some kind of criteria for what makes a blogger a journalist.
What criteria do you think should make a blogger a journalist? – Hawaii Court to Decide if a Blogger is a Journalist
[tags]blogger, blog news, blog jobs, journalists, problogger, problogger jobs[/tags]
