Rules of the blog
April 7th, 2009 by ktrippeAwhile back, I was chatting with PR Newswire’s Michael Pranikoff (as social media goes this guy’s da bomb). about whether a blogger is a journalist. Defining the role of the blogger may not solve the financial crisis, but it is helpful to marketers given the positive or negative impact a blog posting can have on a person or company.
I have made it clear in previous postings that I come out of old-school journalism, which means there specific rules about what you can write. There’s a surprising amount of content online about how the rules of journalism in print versus online are different. I’ll call b*s# on that. The only difference between on and offline is the delivery mechanism. Journalism didn’t change with the advent of TV, and it shouldn’t change now. The basic rules of journalism include:
• Covering both sides of the story (objectivity)
• Never publishing based on rumor or innuendo (named sources)
• Having your story reviewed for quality and accuracy (editing)
What bugs me the most are the anonymous blogs. These sites seem to enjoy making prognostications about people and companies which by the viral nature of the Internet then appear in other blogs and links. But who made lofty statements and based on what data is never known.
The new administration has called for greater transparency in government. I think we should call on all bloggers to do the same. Otherwise, if they’re claiming to be journalists, that claim is unjustified
Posted in Marketing Mentor |
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One Response to “Rules of the blog”
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Michael Pranikoff Says:
April 19th, 2009 at 4:30 pmHi Karla,
First, thanks for the very nice comment. I very much appreciate it.
Second, I think you are definitely on to something here. There’s been a lot of talk about transparency online from some of the most prominent people in social media. We see this happen all the time with blogs, comments on blogs, and now in Twitter.
In my experiences in working in media, and now with PR Newswire, we require attribution to a statement – whatever that statement might be. It is true that often in the media, there are quotes attributed to “anonymous”. However, we still have a name to hold responsible for that statement, and that it’s been checked out – the author and news organization behind that statement.
We can’t make blanket statements about all bloggers, but I think you are on to something here. This might be a good topic for some of the top PR, IR, and Journalism organizations to tackle and promote.
I also need to make a quick note that these statements are mine personally, and might not reflect that of my employer.
Michael Pranikoff
Director, Emerging Media
PR Newswire