Blogger or Journalist

There's been something that's been bugging me for ages now. How do we define where the line is drawn between a journalist and a blogger.

Professionally the line is a thick wall that cannot be breached by any means. Journalists and bloggers are 2 completely different entities. Both are to be respected (at least by me), but treated very differently.

However i feel the lines are starting to blur beyond recognition. Digital journalists (I coined the term, don't go stealing it without permission you'll) are starting to emerge from once only bloggers ruled. Bloggers infuse style into their writing making their posts opinion pieces rather than simple and honest journalistic articles... Rubbish.

Bloggers like Seth Godin, the guys behind Mashable, even AVflox seem to write extremely well. Are their posts personal and non-journalisty, duh! But are they also very good and easy to read, Yep! So what do we say now, leave real "news" to journalists or open the door and allow bloggers to share the mantle. It is true, we would then be looking at a different style of writing where opinions suddenly come to the forefront very early into the article rather than being weaved in subtly by the more trained and experienced journalists. But hey, I don't see that as a problem.

I read that over 52% of bloggers refer to themselves as journalists, since they feel the other alternative would be typist. No disrespect to typists, but you don't grow up wanting to be a typist.

Is this how the world works that bloggers now resort to branding themselves as journalists in order to gain some semblance of respect. Case in point, the recent Gawker editor Jason Chen having his house searched and has his computer and servers "confiscated" because apparently bloggers are not covered under the security laws in his state. Sad, but ultimately true.

So what do we do now, wait for the inevitable battle between digital and print, which will be won by digital, but would that ever equate to more respect for your everyday blogger, who has the talent and the will, but has chosen a medium, which draws very little respect from the media and sadly from those within my own profession.

Who's to say and who's to judge.

Peace.