Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York & Los Angeles

Putting aside the Bloggers out there that are soley Splogs or write just for fun, when you think of blogs such as Micropersuasion, Genetics & Health or CopyBlogger, do you see them as people simply writing posts or along the same lines as journalists and editors? As digital media continues to increase in popularity, more individuals are choosing to share their knowledge online through blogging and many more consider themselves journalists and editors. The lines are continuing to blur between the two, as we saw this past year with Blogger Josh Wolf who was jailed in federal prison for 7 months and recently released.

Wolf had filmed video of a protest and published it to his blog. He had been served with a grand jury subpoena regarding identifying the protesters and turning over the video of the protest, which he defied and was then put in federal prison for it. Wolf considers himself a journalist and feels he and all other Bloggers should be protected under a shield law to protect them in the same way traditional journalists are protected to not reveal their confidential sources and unpublished materials. The Assistant US Attorney prosecuting the case feels that a Blogger is in no way a journalist.

Dr. Hsein Hsein Lei, Blogger behind Genetics & Health, also recently encountered this same train of thought when she applied for embargoed press releases from EurekAlert. She was denied because she was a Blogger and not considered a journalist, even though she is a Doctor. She simply chooses to share her knowledge of genetics and health related issues through the blogging medium.

What establishes a Blogger as a true journalist or editor? The lines between the two continue to be gray, only making for more controversy as Blogging continues to become more engrained in our culture. Is there a set of criteria that need to be established that can deem a worthy Blogger the title of journalist? I think there are many more questions than answers when it comes to Blogger as journalist. I would love to hear your thoughts on what the boundaries should be and how we can establish true and binding criteria for the determination of a Blogger journalist.