Over the past few years there has been increased access to online media content. This access provides not only the ability to read news content, but also the ability to produce it. One area where this is clearly evident is in the realm of blogging. Not only can blogs be read on any internet capable device, they can be created and uploaded to the internet on most of them. The explosion in the numbers of people exercising this modern ability to post content on the internet makes it imperative that we ask the question should all of those blogging be considered journalists? This is a question not only for those working in the news field, but a question for everyone accessing online media for information about the events that impact their lives.
According to the website for the American Press Institute, anyone can produce journalism; that is the gathering, assessing, creating and presenting of news content. However, merely participating in journalistic-like activities does not make someone a journalist. Journalists must follow a set of principles that have been self-identified by those working in the field. A summation of these is that the journalist places the public welfare above all other concerns and does this based on a foundation of rigorous verification. The journalist gathers the information, assesses its veracity and disseminates it. However, this is not done in a vacuum; it is done with the needs of the journalist's community in mind. Be that community local, national or international in scope.
Why should a community be worried about who is calling themselves a journalist? Because there are certain protections that go along with being a journalist or reporter. One of these is the idea of Reporters' Privilege. The Electronic Frontier Foundation describes Reporters' Privilege as a qualified privilege to keep confidential sources anonymous. The courts have found that this is provided for in federal and state constitutions. This brings the question, as an anonymous news source, would a person be protected if the blogger that they talked to is not considered a bona fide journalist?
Maybe another question that should be asked is whether Reporters' Privilege still applies in the age of online media. One thing to remember is that Reporters' Privilege applies not only to the journalist, but ultimately to the community new sources that it protects. Until the question of who can legitimately claim the title of journalist is better resolved, Reporters' Privilege should be painted with a wide brush. Personally, I feel that it is one of the cornerstones of the news remaining democratic and truly informative.
https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/
https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/journalists/privilege
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