Bob Stepno’s Red Liner

For a possible summer 2004 panel discussion at a journalism education conference…
How can “mass communication” scholars look at weblogs? Should journalism educators be teaching future professional journalists about blogs? Should we be teaching future bloggers about journalism, from fact-checking and headline-writing to libel law?

This is my first draft of a panel proposal… Comments appreciated…

Weblogs, newspapers and political coverage:
New roles for professionals in a world of amateurs?

1. Blogs by opinion columnists (everyone an “instapundit”?)
2. Blogs by reporters (with or without gatekeeping editors!?)
3. Blogs to invite public tips and comments (participatory journalism or token “interactivity”)
4. Blogs as something to cover. Identifying important voices versus “blogrolling”? Who has time to read this stuff? How do you sort out grassroots and astroturf?
5. Using blogs and Web linkage to supplement newspapers: Linkage to document opinions with facts, link opposing opinions for public debate

Growing version of this item.
Earlier related weblog entry

What should journalism schools teach about blogs? …

While alternating between online conversations about blogging and
journalism and the values of both, I fell into a journalism-professor
listserv discussion of Hollywood movies that show good (and bad)
examples of traditional journalism values at work. Suggestions ranged
from the obvious “All the President’s Men” to the adventures of sleazy
tabloid reporters in the Roaring Twenties.

I’ve turned part of the discussion into a blog item, and invite comments to expand the conversation. (Please follow this link, or the headline above, not the “comment” link on this message, thanks.)

Now when will we have the first “Valiant Blogger Saves the Day” movie? (For that question, feel free to leave the comments here!

Hildy, you’re a blogger? Newspaper movies… …

Miami Herald reporter Richard Pachter noticed that Matt Drudge’s website is mostly links to stories on other sites, so he asked whether Drudge considers himself a blogger. ”Nope,” Drudge said. “Sounds too much like booger.”
He also said he’s “a newsman and not a journalist… nor a cyber this or that.” For more details, including Drudge’s estimate that he makes a very non-blogger (and non-journalist) $1.2 million a year, see the Herald story.

Not a Blogger; Not a Journalist …

This is mostly coincidence, but a convoluted anecdote about a New York Times correction, problems with ambiguity in identifying an information source, and a couple of timely “tool pages” from the Project for Excellence in Journalism all might be useful for webloggers wrhting about election campaigns and more…

Covering Politics and Making Stories More Accurate …