Reader Response for February 9th

Last Tuesday's class was a good one. My interest was held from beginning to end (partly because "end" was not at 10pm, but that's beside the point.)

If I remember correctly, Pam started the class talking about the new blogging and online journalism guidelines. I read the article she posted before class started and I had a bunch of questions/comments about it, meaning I was pretty skeptical.

So apparently the RTDNA (Radio Television Digital News Association- what a mouthful!) came up with an online supplement to the Code of Ethics, which is "the ethical standard that newsrooms have followed for decades" and now online journalists and bloggers who present "news" are expected to do the same thing.

Honestly, I think it's good. I think it's good that someone or a group of someones is finally deciding to limit what can be said by professionals in the news on the world wide web. It's good. My skepticism rooted, however, from the idea that nobody, this group or any other for that matter, can really carry these rules out and expect all online journalists to follow them for a few reasons.

First of all... who of the millions and millions of bloggers and web writers is considered a "professional journalist"? Who can make that distinction?

"What distinction?" you ask.

Well, the distinction between a recreational blogger (someone who blogs for fun, as an emotional release, to keep friends updated, etc.) and a "professional". These people at RTDNA obviously don't expect recreational writers to follow these guidelines- or "laws" if you will. So who decides what writers need to abide by these laws and which writers can go about business as usual (i.e. using curse words and distasteful pictures because in many cases those people are simply exercising their rights to freedom of speech.) Like a student in class mentioned, what are the consequences or punishments for a professional not following these rules? Obviously there are those that write for an online publication that would fire writers in a heartbeat if something of "bad taste" was posted, but there are also those who post news that don't answer to anyone like that. I'm just confused as to how these regulations will be carried out and followed.

The other important question in relation to the guidelines is age-old: "what is news?" But hey, if we could answer that we wouldn't encounter many of the journalism problems that exist today. It's a discussion that could last for days.

There's my two cents. I'm unsure what difference these guidelines will make in the world of blogging and online journalism, but I do believe they are a step in the right direction.