Blogger Schmogger

Now time for the ultimate blogging question… Are bloggers journalists? I feel qualified to speak on this topic after successfully hosting a blog for a few months now.

In my own experience with this blog, I’ve found that the amount of time I spend writing a blog article and the amount of time I spend writing a traditional news article are drastically different. I exert much more effort and time on my traditional writing. Perhaps this is because I feel the need to fact check, attribute, edit and re-edit all my traditional entries. But in the blogosphere, who’s looking? Aside from my Professor (Hi, Scott!).

I do agree that blogs have power and potential. The ability to directly communicate with readers is so important, and blogs allow this. News will finally become interactive and conversational.

But I have to wonder if I can anticipate the same kind of success for independent, lesser-known bloggers, like myself. What are the chances that any poor soul would stumble onto Ye Ol Weblog? And, if they did, who guarantees they will stick around long enough to read my banter? Right now, the most popular blogs are those run by larger news conglomerates or professionals.

Furthermore, news and headlines may break in the blogosphere, but they never stay there. According to a survey by LexisNexis, when consumers read a breaking story in a blog, they go immediately to a trusted news source to get the entire story.

Still, I like the ability of blogs to target specific niches, like East Mediterranean cooking or rubber band enthusiasts. Blogs allow sub-topics like these to be covered in-depth, as the mainstream media giants traditionally ignore them.

I hope my own media-centered blog has interested a few journalists along the way. And, I look forward to the coming decade when, I believe, the blogosphere will realize its full potential as an information/entertainment source.