Blogging versus Journalism

Whether to include blogging under a broad umbrella of journalism has been a matter of debate for a long time. While the difference between blogging and journalism is not a matter of black and white, there are clear differences:

• Blogging is meant to be personal and highly opinionated, unlike journalism, which is expected to be fact-based, establishing the five Ws (Who, What, Where, When, and Why) early in the text. While blog readers appreciate facts, they tend to seek blogs for personal stories and opinions. An exception may be corporate blogs which are designed to be less personal than individual ones.
• Both bloggers and journalists are open to feedback. However, feedback on blogs may be faster, in the form of comments appearing publicly online; feedback on journalistic writing usually goes through editorial teams and may or may not be shared with the public. Journalistic writing tends not to be conversational in the same way that blogging can be.
•  Journalists are often bound by deadlines. They are restricted, working under tight schedules to produce writing while news is fresh. Personal bloggers, on the other hand, can often choose their own time frames; while they enjoy posting timely information, they are not under the same pressure as journalists. In this sense, they are free. Ironically, bloggers can be faster than journalists sometimes, publishing content in seconds if they so wish; their writing is meant to be self-checked rather than going through editors first, which may waste time.
• While news pieces can become stale quickly, sometimes in a matter of days, blog posts can remain relevant for longer.
• News audiences are often much broader. Most personal blogs tend to cater to narrower audiences.
•  Regarding platforms, journalists can experience greater variety, including print media, radio, and television, not just online.
• In terms of word counts, news pieces tend to abide by their publications’ as well as the broader industry’s guidelines; there are specific word limits. For personal blogs, there is no minimum or maximum number of words. The sky is the limit!

It may be argued that without journalists, bloggers would have nothing to write about. I would disagree here as bloggers do not depend on others’ writing (though they avail themselves of it) to create their own. Much of what they write can be based on their own experiences in their immediate environments.

What about fake blogs, you may ask? Of course, there is a danger that fake personas may deceive blog readers, but journalistic news can be fake too. Readers should always be on the alert for fake stories everywhere, whether online or in any other form.