I agree with you that the best part about blogging is that you’re allowed to be opinionated. In many ways it’s like being a radio talk show host. It’s an interesting analogy anyway.
]]>For us, our responsibility extends even even further as we came into being expressly because we were dissatisfied with the mainstream Kenyan media.
]]>I think the major difference is really one of clout. If you write for a blog that has 1 million readers a day then you’ve got similar clout to a major news publication and can shout the odds. If you’re writing a tiny blog with a few dozen readers a week then you’re probably no different to a magazine with a microscopic circulation.
That basically means that – if you have the clout – you can expect to be invited to big events as a special media guest, and take the sort of risks that might land you in trouble knowing that you either have sufficient celebrity status or your employer does, to get you out of trouble.
If you don’t, you don’t.
I frequently use my regular column at the Cape Argus as a way to get into events that I’m covering for other journals knowing that they probably won’t let me in otherwise.
Although, as with a recent corporate do (an opening of a 20-computer IT centre at a school for 5 000 kids that was celebrated with all the excitement of the coming of the risen lord, gag, gag, gag) I sometimes get surprised by the desperation of PR firms to put bums in seats to make the CEOs feel special, and was invited on behalf of the magazine I write for that probably only has a few thousand readers.
]]>As for businesses, all press is good press. It is always good to be in front people regardless of what you are saying. So blogs are good for them. How many small businesses would get any pr if it wasn’t for blogging?
So are they journalists? I don’t know how to answer that. I just know they are doing what journalists do. Whether free of paid and their services are of value. This can be attested by the number of media houses incorporating bloggers or new business models rely on blogging to make it.
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