Daily Newspaper Features ‘Blogumists’
December 5th, 2007 by Sterling Hager
Based in Johannesburg, The Times newspaper now offers almost totally uncensored posts from a handful of selected bloggers. They call these writers blogumists. They call the postings blogumns. Here's a link to these posts which The Times describes as 'Exclusive daily musings written by bloggers for The Times.' Here is a link to The Time's home page.
If you can't beat 'em, let 'em join you?
Having been a newspaper reporter once upon a time long ago, I wonder how the professional journalists at The Times feel about these citizen journalists? What happens if one of their blogumists writes a post critical of the print media? Are the writings of these blogumists fact-checked? As a blogumist for The Times, is the blogger afforded all the same protections generally associated with newspaper reporters? Is the newspaper liable for what it prints under the byline of a blogger? Since The Times says, "…these blogumns are left unedited 98.999% uncensored," what sort of copy represents the 1.001% of unacceptable content?
By the way, I'm guilty here of asking questions that I often get, and which I tend to categorize as just another rock in my shoe. Social media is supposed to be a little open ended and free-wheeling. If we wait around for everything to get figured out, we'll never get anything started.
Sphere: Related Content
Tags: New Ideas, Newspapers, Anti-Establishment, Social Media
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December 5th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Hi Sterling
Thanks for your comment on my column this week and the link back. The Times doesn’t edit our columns all that much, the idea being to publish blog posts not editorials. I haven’t been fact checked as far as I know. Then again, most of my columns are based on my perceptions and opinions and I make an effort to be as accurate as I can be when I rely on facts. After all, my column is a reflection on my knowledge and skill so it is important that I submit decent quality work and not transparent waffle.
The blogumist project began about 6 months ago and it seems to be working quite well. Our contracts have been extended for another few months and I think that is a pretty good vote of confidence in the process and the concept.
Please feel free to visit again and comment. You may have noticed that there are 5 bloggers/blogumists, each of us have our own day so there is a fair amount of variety from one day to the next.
December 5th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Hi Paul-
Thank you for writing. I’m in haste to let you know I didn’t mean to imply that you or any other bloggers needed to be fact-checked. Instead, it was a rather clumsy attempt perhaps on my part to poke the print media people who from time to time complain that bloggers aren’t real or relevant or reliable because they are not held to the same high standards as professional journalists/reporters at newspapers.