This essay will examine the effect which blogging, and more recently microblogging as offered by Twitter, has had on journalism. It will look at specific events that are of note and the way in which blogs and Twitter are making an impact on a daily basis. It will conclude that Twitter in particular is having an increasingly important role in journalism, but that both it and blogs come with ethical concerns also.
What is blogging?
Weblogs, or blogs for short, are a series of diary or journal entries which are time-stamped and usually displayed in reverse chronological order. They have existed since the mid-1990s, but there is dispute over which website can be classified as the first true ‘blog’. What is clear though, is that they have since become “a citizen-based form of journalism” (Allen 2006).
Blogging’s effects on journalism
Andrews (2003) says that blogs “are transforming the ways in which journalism is practiced today”. He adds that they create the potential for new journalistic venues, perhaps like Twitter has become. Andrews points to the September 11 attacks as an example of the impact blogs can have, and says that in its early hours, “blogs became the best available source of eyewitness reporting.” Mark Little would come to make similar claims about Twitter, after the Iranian example we will see later (Youtube).
The relationship between blogging and journalism has often been uncomfortable. For some blogs, their mission has been to “shame journalists into doing better” (Smolkin cited by Lowrey and Mackay 2008). An Irish blogger describes them as “a ‘Fifth Estate’; a watchdog to the watchdogs” (Adam Maguire (May 2006)). One of their “classic virtues”, according to Bahnisch (2008), is to challenge “accepted media narratives”.
Blogs are a competitor for traditional news outlets, and they often “stake out much of the same turf” (Lowrey 2006). In 2004, for instance, the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States gave bloggers accreditation to their national conventions. This was seen as a victory for the medium of blogging, and represented “evidence of the shift” towards it (Journalism.co.uk).
The AP and CNN.com introduced blogs for the first time at those conventions (ibid.) and many news organisations now devote sections of their sites to blogging. In the United States, the number of news websites hosting blogs jumped from 33 per cent in April 2005 to 61 per cent in March 2006 (Lowrey and Mackay 2008). Irish news websites have embraced blogging also, particularly The Irish Times which has a dedicated blog section with links to its 12 blogs. All of them are updated regularly.
However, independent blogs have yet to pose a financial threat to established news organisations. They receive only a fraction of the advertising revenue American newspapers receive ($10 million versus $49.4 billion in 2005) (Lowrey and Mackay 2008).
Blogs are also dependent on news organisations for much of their content. Andrews (2003) says “without the daily work of print journalists, one wonders if even the news-conscious blogs would contain real news.” They are capable, however, of generating their own newsworthy content on occasion.
Bloggers’ original news
In 2006, bloggers led the way in coverage of the O’Connell Street riots in Dublin (Ihle 2006). They had pictures and analysis long before the first pictures from RTÉ were published on its television bulletin (Adam Maguire (March 2006)). It is one example of what Andrews (2003) describes as the occasions “when weblogs can be ahead of news reporting.”
However, Andrews adds that stories still require the publicity which only a news organisation can provide. Otherwise, it’s “doubtful” whether any actions will come about as a result of the story. Even still, there is no guarantee that organisations will report what a blog says. Tallyman.ie learned this last year when it ran a story saying Eamon Gilmore couldn’t account for expenses claimed by Labour members.
While many blogs are largely comment-based and have no clear objective, some well-known blogs in Ireland are dedicated to providing original news. The Limerick Blogger is one example, which brands itself as ‘Limerick’s independent news blog’.
A better-known Irish example is The Story. It is operated by freelance journalists Mark Coughlan and Gavin Sheridan. It uses the Freedom of Information Act to great effect and has also compiled detailed spreadsheets of donations received by TDs, senators and MEPs. The blog itself declares that it acts “in search of transparency”, and Andrews (2003) says that blogs like these “have contributed to the truth-finding process.”
Concerns about blogging
Perhaps the main concern about blogging is its reliability. Lowrey and Mackay (2008) state:
Though some blogging enthusiasts say the expansive “blogosphere” serves as a reliable fact-checking mechanism, the validity of this claim is not well-tested, and at any rate, the problem remains that unchecked information is routinely published, even if it is eventually corrected.
The Australian newspaper was scathing in its criticism of bloggers. A 2007 editorial said these “self-appointed experts” are “sheltered academics and failed journalists who would not get a job on a real newspaper” (Anon.).
Given their dependence on traditional media, it could be argued that blogs are not a major threat to professional journalism. Only 27 per cent of German internet users knew what a blog was in 2005 (Velkov 2005), and the 2008 figure for the United States was only slightly better (40 per cent) (Lowrey and Mackay 2008). This essay argues that microblogging - and in particular Twitter - is of much greater concern, and it is being perceived more credibly than blogs as a news source.
Why Twitter works
News wires, such as those offered by news agencies, used to be exclusive to newsrooms, but Twitter offers a freely-available alternative into which anyone can input. The unrest in Tehran following last year’s disputed elections there marked, perhaps, Twitter’s defining moment “as a critical information source for people directly involved” (Journalism.org).
Twitter can also generate stories, or at least give them prominence before traditional media does. On Christmas Day last year, while the Irish news media was dormant, Twitter users like Mark Coughlan were discussing the government’s turnaround on cuts to higher-paid civil servants’ salaries (Twitter: Collette Browne). The first Irish Times article didn’t appear until January 2 (Collins 2010). Later, following Senator Dan Boyle’s online criticism of Willie O’Dea, he would become “the first government minister to be tweeted out of office” (Clifford 2010). Twitter is coming to be regarded as much a part of the journalist’s arsenal as a phone and a notepad (Farhi 2009).
Twitter is also useful for networking. It provides direct access to newsmakers, without a PR person standing in-between. These sources can lead to story tips (ibid.) but time and effort needs to be spent developing these relationships through Twitter before you can expect help from a source (Garrison-Sprenger 2008).
Above all else Twitter is useful for exchanging content and journalists have used it as a tool in this regard. Dickerson (2008) says Twitter exposes users to a wider variety of news, and they are lured to longer articles “by these moment-by-moment observations.” Twitter can also flag upcoming events, like John McGuinness’s local radio interview where he criticised Brian Cowen’s reshuffle (Twitter: VCurrentAffairs).
Twitter offers speed and brevity (Farhi 2009), as Abigail Reiley ably demonstrated with her live tweets from the Eamonn Lillis trial (Twitter: Abigail Rieley). However, this speed combined with Twitter’s lack of an editorial process, have led to ethical concerns about the medium.
Twitter’s ethical issues for journalism
Like blogging, Twitter’s lack of checks and balances means that it is more likely to report erroneous material than traditional media. Cassidy (2009) gives an example of a false report stating that California had overturned its ban on gay marriage which was widely circulated through Twitter. Rusbridger (2009) is concerned that as sources like Twitter grow and newspapers continue their financial decline, “for the first time since the Enlightenment, communities are faced with the prospect of living without verifiable sources of news.”
There is also the temptation for journalists to tweet news that their employer may not approve of. Last year, a Washington Post journalist tweeted incorrect claims that the New Yorker was cutting staff numbers. He soon tweeted that it was a mistake and later said his message was “naive” (Farhi 2009). Following Gerry Ryan’s death, Miriam O’Callaghan confirmed the news on Twitter an hour before RTÉ. She soon deleted the message and later apologised (Linehan 2010). In both cases however, the comments had been widely circulated, or ‘retweeted’.
Conclusion
Twitter is a more powerful medium than blogging because its speed gives it a distinct advantage and as a social medium it appeals to people’s gregarious nature. It is important to question what is published, as both the speed and the unknown source have consequences for accuracy. While blogging and Twitter occasionally provide original content, their overwhelming reliance on professional journalists for news means that they merely sit alongside professional journalism. They can never replace it, they just “add, rather than subtract, from what we do” (Dickerson 2008).
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