The next morning Digitella got an sms from Tek to meet him in the newspaper office at lunch time. She anxiously hung around campus, wondering what his verdict would be – and when lunch time came, Digitella knocked lightly on the office door and walked in. Tek was sitting at one of the computers against the far wall and waved her over.
“Good blog,” he said, “A little wordy, but you got your point across. Well done.” Digitella smiled with relief. “Thanks. I’m still not sure its journalism though.”
Tek leant back, confidently in his chair, “Well, it might interest you to know that on Monday President Mbeki referred to bloggers as citizen journalists in a speech at the WAN Conference. Apparently he said something along the lines of “everyone owns a printing press”.”
“That doesn’t make them journalists,” Digitella replied defiantly.
“Look, if you don’t think that blogging is citizen journalism, why don’t you tell me what you think is citizen journalism – on the Web,” he said, smugly crossing his arms.
Digitella thought for a minute. “Well, when mainstream news sites like the Mail and Guardian draw on citizens for content, that would be journalism. Another possibility could be when independent news sites like Ohmynews get their content exclusively from users.”
“I still don’t see why news blogging is not journalism – its reporting and commenting on current events.”
“I just don’t like labeling it journalism,” Digitella said through clenched teeth.
“Why?” Digitella knew he was just trying to frustrate her.
It worked.
“Its just so limiting!” she cried, angrily tossing her backpack onto the desk. “There are so many possibilities for blogging that if you cage it in this western idea of what journalism is, you will lose its potentiality.” She started pacing, “I mean it provides a space for a multitude of fresh voices that highlight issues that affect citizens that mainstream media don’t pick up. It allows readers to comment on the news and become writers themselves. It also provides a space for debate, and, most of all, blogs are creative spaces to experiment.” She fell, exasperatedly into a chair.
Tek was quiet for a minute and then, he slowly swiveled his chair until he was facing her. “Do you have any idea how much time and energy you have wasted fighting this journalism/ blogging debate?”
Digitella turned to look at him, “What?”
“You know what Rosen said? He said that this debate is over. The question now isn’t whether bloggers are journalists – I mean, from our little debate we can see that blogging is sometimes journalism. What we need to do now is focus on the reality – power in the media is shifting and changing. When 9/ 11 happened – people turned to bloggers as a means of understanding what was going on. That is the reality and that is what you need to focus your pent-up aggression on.”
Digitella, sat back and sighed, “I don’t have pent-up aggression.”
Tek laughed, “Oh yes you do! Look, while its all good and well to ask questions like these, don’t get too bent out of shape over it because you are never going to reach a conclusion. There is so much else to question about citizen journalism on the Web.”
“I look forward to your next entry – and no more blogging vs. journalism. Your users are expecting more from you.”
Tune in later tonight for a special Exam week episode of Citizen Media: The Days of OUR Online Lives.
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