12: Blogging vs. Journalism

I blog. I do. I mean aside from here at the last minute I have one blog on my myspace page. It is a video of penguins dancing from the movie Happy Feet. I know. Trust me I know. But it's cute. Really cute. But is it news? Am I spreading the word about the movie happy feet and how great it is? Or am I merely expressing my opinion that cartoon penguins who sing and dance are irresistibly adorable. I'm not a huge believer that bloggers are journalists. Sure the iReport link on cnn.com enourages people to send in their own news, but even the VA tech camera phone video really doesnt make that guy a journalist. He could really be passed off as a stupid kid who wouldnt get out of the way when a few feet away people are clearly dying, and he might have been next. But it was interesting and the media grabbed it up, but clearly the young man who took this shot had a few moments of fame and that was it. Anyway, a blogger usually only expresses opinion. Journalists write about the latest news because they have to. If your editor explains to you that the news story needs to be covered, you write it. A blogger could certainly write a "news" story on the upcoming campaigns, but one could argue they are writing these stories not because they have to, but because they have an opinion about it. That is not a journalist.