Blogging and journalism

Is blogging journalism? That's the question that's been making the rounds in journalism circles these days. (see report on a January 2005 conference "Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground".)

Certainly much of the navel gazing -- those excruciatingly detailed accounts of waking up and eating breakfast and going to the store and having sex -- is a far cry from journalism.

And yet blogging shares a lot with journalism. Like journalists, bloggers observe. They share their observations. And, increasingly, bloggers are becoming part of the democratic process, often helping to inform a citizenry that's fed up with mainstream media.

For journalists, blogging can be a useful tool -- part diary, part notebook, part publication -- that helps them record their thoughts and observations and share them in a public forum that's outside the constraints of a traditional media report. In blogs, journalists can muse and reflect, including opinions that their editors might not want them to share.

In Spring 2006, my Reporting class at San Francisco State University will try something new – blogging. In the course, students each cover a neighborhood of San Francisco for the semester. Most of the assignments will continue to be traditional news stories – a crime story, a profile, a report on a trial, a neighborhood feature. But the students will also be required to post blog entries about their neighborhoods and about their reporting process. They’ll get to reflect and muse, share their opinions as well as the facts they gather.

Is this journalism? Heck if I know. But blogging is certainly a tool more and more journalists are adopting. It’s worth an experiment. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Your Neighborhood

This is a sample of how you will post your blog