Overheard

“I swore with my hand on the Bible to uphold the Constitution. I didn’t swear with my hand on the Constitution to uphold the Bible.”

“Buy anything you want at the grocery store; cooking is always cheaper than eating out.”

“There are two things in this world that take no skill: 1. Spending other people’s money and 2. Dismissing an idea.”

“Violence is a choice a man makes and he alone is responsible for it.”

“Oh boy! Another great opportunity for personal growth!”

Comments

Hello Travis!

Student Jhenifer Pabillano here. Thanks for the insightful talk this lunchtime. A question jumped into my mind at the end of the talk that I didn't quite get to ask: What, ultimately, sets apart the journalist from the blogger? What unique talents are a journalist endowed with that a blogger could never touch? I guess I'm curious because it speaks to the utility of journalists in the future--if bloggers could do what journalists do, then there may be a case for worry. But if journalists have singular talents that could never quite be emulated by bloggers, then bully for the newspapers.

Anyway, any comment on this would be terrific.

Thanks!

Posted by Jhenifer
  at 12:30 pm on Oct. 16, 2005

Here's an identical question: What sets snowboarders apart from being journalists? Nothing.

If a blogger does what a journalist does, I believe he too is a journalist. However, in the earlier context, I was talking about "journalists working for traditional media outlets and publishing in traditional ways, such as newspapers, TV, radio, and online news sites."

Journalists have singular talents, and they can blog. Or bloggers can learn how to be journalists through training or hard experience or (rarely) through innate natural tendencies.

There will be a role for journalists in any society that has freedom of information, or needs it. Whether blogging would be allowed in an oppresive future, is not as clear.

Posted by Travis Smith
  at 1:02 pm on Oct. 16, 2005

China is certainly cracking down on Internet sites (including blogs) that do not "promote its democratic aims", i.e. the party line. But in some sense it might be easier (and more anonymous) to be a blog-based journalist in an oppressive environment, rather than attempting to use traditional publishing methods.

Posted by Wes
  at 9:44 am on Oct. 18, 2005

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