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The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

We are all journalists?

10 comments on We are all journalists?

We are all journalists?

: Seth Godin says we are all journalists:

So, there’s now almost 3,000,000 bloggers tracked by some of the online services. That’s 1% or so of the active online population, and since it seems as though the number is doubling every month or so, it’s starting to get significant.

Remember how you used to curse journalists? Curse them for being lazy, or hyperbolic? …

Now, everyone with a blog is a journalist. When you run a post accusing a politician of having no personality, for example, you’re indulging the public’s desire to elect a dinner partner, not a president. When you chime in on the day’s talking points, you’re a tool, not a new voice.

So, we come to the moment of truth. Now that anyone who wants to be a journalist CAN be a journalist, are the ethics going to get better… or worse?

I’m an optimist most of the time, but on this issue, I’m afraid I’m a realist.

Or we reinvent journalism.

10 responses to “We are all journalists?”

  1. Andrea Harris Avatar
    Andrea Harris

    Well yes, but is every blogger a reporter. I’m afraid that’s what’s really missing from the pro-news media: good, old-fashioned reportage, what happened when to whom and where. We can download the opinions of any human insect on anything, but where do we go to get what actually happened without all the crap and gush about What The Writer Telling You About The Event Thinks His Ownself?

  2. Dorian Avatar
    Dorian

    Andrea is quite right.
    What Mr. Godin is really saying is that “we are all pundits”, and he

  3. Om Avatar
    Om

    sure we all are reporters, not journalists. with the exception of seth who is an opinion writer (maybe) and that’s all

  4. Steve K. Avatar
    Steve K.

    As a professional journalist, I’m not sure where Seth’s “the sky is falling” attitude is coming from. Sure, I have problems with the mainstream media, but I also see the blog revolution as being a huge potential answer to that. As Jeff is suggesting, this new Web publishing movement has great possibilities for reinventing journalism as a whole. I think it’s way too early to be declaring this whole blog thing a “slippery slope.”

  5. Seth Finkelstein Avatar
    Seth Finkelstein

    As Andrea notes, there’s a difference between opinion and information. I think Seth Godin’s point is that we may get a lot of opinion, but it’s not clear we’ll get more information. Arguably, we’ll have *less* information *distributed*, since it’s drowned out by the torrent of opinion.
    (n.b., this *is* somewhat counter-intuitive, but it’s supportable)
    Whether this is good or bad is another issue – In general, the public *likes* opinion (especially opinion which confirms what it believes) far more than it likes information.

  6. The One True b!X Avatar
    The One True b!X

    Journalists have an obligation to objectively report the news in a totally unbiased manner.
    This is not really a given, or a consensus definition of the journalist’s job. Maybe I’m stuck in a bubble of some kind, but I’m kind of surprised that at this point we’re still thinking that the mythical “objectivity” is part of journalism, or should be.

  7. Seth Finkelstein Avatar
    Seth Finkelstein

    b!X, how’d the job/funding problems work out for the PORTLAND COMMUNIQUE?
    Those difficulties you were having are extremely relevant as a real-world case-study of small-scale reporting.

  8. The One True b!X Avatar
    The One True b!X

    Working on it. First stage was the reader survey which closes after tomorrow and which in part will tell me how many readers will commit (or, rather, say they will commit) to a regular monthly contribution. That will give a sense of what’s left to come up with.

  9. penheaded Avatar
    penheaded

    It seems that when the comparison between blogs and big media journalism is made, a very narrow definition of journalism is used. I find the writing in some blogs to be very informative. But as hard as I try to find the right mix, I still can’t seem to find five blogs that are as broadly informative as five stops at web news sites.
    I think we need more than just finding comfort in the opinion’s we already have but I don’t know if “objectivety” is the answer. Going as far back as the Greek’s for basic philosophy, the search for truth is not neutral. A good editor will tell us not only where the tree’s are but also the make-up of the forest.

  10. The One True b!X Avatar
    The One True b!X

    I don’t know if “objectivity” is the answer.
    Nor do I. But then I subscribe to the general thrust of The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, which outlines 11 points — none of which is the fabled “objectivity.”