Fine Print

The title above refers to Christie Blatchford’s last sentence in today’s Globe and Mail piece. I disagree with her. (Of course, otherwise this post ends here.)

She writes that “the unofficial end to journalism” happened this week, just because her colleague Matt Sekeres uttered those ubiquitous words: “I’m going to blog this.” So, I decided to look up what the definition of journalism is:

1. The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.
2. Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.
3. The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.
4. Newspapers and magazines.
5. An academic course training students in journalism.
6. Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal.

Granted — to give Blatchford the benefit of the doubt on one point — it doesn’t mention the word “blog” in any of the definitions. But doesn’t (1) and (2) apply, if the word was added in there? And isn’t (6) the very definition of a blog? Editorials are blogs too, you know, just not electronic.

Apparently a Canadian Press colleague was “stricken with nostalgia” upon spying Blatchford’s notebook. Please! I get stricken with nostalgia when I see a cellphone that can’t take a video, or recall the days when the URL twitter.com was available for $20. Times change, journalism has changed, time to buy some real estate in Blogville.

[Update: Doug Haslam weighs in here: “Is ‘Editorial’ the same as ‘Blog?’ Perhaps there are some logical gymnastics performed in this article, but as I feel it’s healthy to look beyond format and examine content and intent, they may be closer cousins than some bloggers — or editors — may want to admit.”]

Slightly related: a blog posting that has some real research behind it. Researching some research, in fact.

Totally not related: Electronic Arts gets it. How to engage 101. (Or, if you’re a conspiracy theorist, how to deliberately screw up something so you can turn it to your advantage down the line.)

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada