Blogging Brands

Rettberg’s article, “Blogging Brands” offers insight regarding different forms of advertising utilized by bloggers, and the positive and negative aspects of each.

Until my Digital Communications class, I honestly did not know that some people blogged professionally.  Blogging as a career, with a salary was a completely foreign concept to be.  For someone to “bring home the bacon” just by writing for free online was confusing to me.  If anyone may blog, then how can people possibly make a living off it?  Then of course, it came to me – everything made sense – these bloggers use advertising.

Blogs that get a lot of traffic, naturally, can be supported by advertising.  It is up to the bloggers themselves to determine what types of ads they are comfortable with – some prefer small ads on the sidebar of the blog, some like banner ads, and some, use sponsored ads.

If we’re being completely honest (and I promise to always be honest on my blog!) I am not completely on board with the idea of blogger using advertisements.  Rettberg puts my perspective perfectly in her assertion on page 138:

Blogging is an unregulated area, and this is the sort of question that shows that blogging is not simply a form of journalism.  It is not clear whether blogging should follow the rules of mainstream media about separating editorial content from sponsored content, and even if there were an agreement about this, there would be no way to make bloggers follow it.  J.D. Lasica argues straight out that a blogger who wishes to be thought of as a journalist cannot post sponsored entries.

I am of the feeling that bloggers who post about specific products or companies for payment, are not necessarily being true to themselves, to their blogs, or to their audiences.  It would frustrate me to follow a blog that suddenly gained significant-enough traffic to where the author decided to start posting about random products.  I don’t choose to read blogs to be made to feel like a consumer.  I read blogs because I like what the author posts.  Once the author begins posting sponsored ads, it may not be the blog it used to be, and I may not like it as much as I did before.

I have less of a problem with sponsored ads if the authors completely disclose that they are paid to write reviews of particular products, etc.  After all, “truth and integrity are at the core of both the success stories and the failures of commercial blogging,” so if the author of a blog does not disclose this information to his or her readers and then is later found out, it is extremely likely that the author will have lost all credibility (Rettberg 153).  In fact, they definitely lose credibility for me.

So my questions are, do blog authors lose credibility for you when they start allowing advertisements on their pages?  What about when they participate in sponsored blogging?  At what point would an author lose your interest because of advertising on his or her blog page?

Are Bloggers Journalists?

Are bloggers journalists?

It is a question I have taken on before, but after reading Rettberg’s article, “Citizen Journalists” and Rosenstiel’s “Journalism of Verification,” I feel more qualified to take a stab at the question.

This entire debate began with the start of the Internet.  As Internet use progressed, the “blogosphere,” as it is called, opened up.  There has always been freedom of the press, but, as Rettberg puts it, “The Internet changed one of the greatest obstacles to true freedom of the press . . . . by the end of the century, bloggers could, in effect, own a press” (85). 

Suddenly, there is no longer a need to be published in a magazine or newspaper to spread news.  Someone with the details about an event doesn’t have to phone tip the local news station.  Instead, anyone with news, or anything to say for that matter, can with the click of a mouse.

So the question is again, is this journalism?

My answer remains that no, it is not.  Bloggers can be journalists, in some instances, but all bloggers are not journalists because they blog, and similarly, blogging is not necessarily journalism.  Here is what Rettberg identifies as the main difference: “You call yourself a journalist if you work as a journalist” (89). 

Rosensteil takes this concept to an even deeper, but very simplified level.  He says, “the essence of journalism is a discipline of verification” (71). 

In my opinion, that is a fantastic way to explain the difference between journalism and blogging.  Rosensteil elaborates by explaining, “in the end, the discipline of verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, or art” (79).

Journalists are professional writes.  They adhere to their professions code of ethics.  They answer to superiors in the publishing industry, regardless of the medium.  Journalists have accountability.  They must always, verify their information, their sources, their facts.  They must be transparent.

My questions for discussion are, aside from the reasons listed above, are there any other ways to separate bloggers from journalists?  And additionally, when exactly does a blogger become a journalist?