I was just reading a blog post about how threatened ‘credentialed’ journalists feel about bloggers–in particular, since bloggers were given passes to the Democratic National Convention. Some of the people who commmented on this post postulated that ‘o…

With the official recognition of bloggers as members of that sacred tribe, the Press, at the Democratic National Convention, a war of words has broken out between the high priests and the newbies. Danah Boyd feels that the New York…

I was just reading a blog post about how threatened ‘credentialed’ journalists feel about bloggers–in particular, since bloggers were given passes to the Democratic National Convention. Some of the people who commmented on this post postulated that ‘o…

I read danah’s rant about the NYT going on the offensive against bloggers, but I hadn’t realized just how far it went until I saw more sniping in a review of Nicholson Baker’s new book:rnJay is a deeply unhappy man. His wife has left him, his girl…

With bloggers (that are not me) invited to the Democratic Convention and Technorati working with CNN to cover political blogs, the field of journalism seems to be getting awful nervous about the whole blogging revolution (and they have been for some ti…

it never ceases to amaze me how politicians are amazingly adept at the art of saying absolutely nothing. i spotted…

Recently the NYT cheesed some bloggers off by putting them down. I would like to call all Malaysian bloggers to make a change and start to be more credible so that we are taken more seriously. I would also like to call on the Malaysian media (and other…

It’s the beginning of another weekend here at jBlog, and I’ve annoyed another of the bloggerati (this time it’s Joi…

With the official recognition of bloggers as members of that sacred tribe, the Press, at the Democratic National Convention, a war of words has broken out between the high priests and the newbies. Danah Boyd feels that the New York…

As for the amateur/professional argument, a great number of bloggers are professional communicators, technologists, academics, and journalists. In many cases, their blogs offer insights and perspectives that are better constructed, argued, and researched than similar material in the mainstream media.

I’ve written for national media and I know how stories – particularly news stories – are constructed. It’s a “craft” that is shaped by dealines, not quality. And it ‘aint rocket science. Virtually anyone can be trained to create a decent news item. Writing well takes practice but I’d argue that there’s some pretty awful professional journalism out there so lack of “craft” is not the exclusive territory of bloggers.

I think the real issue for some journalists is that there’s some pretty amazing bloggery out there. And some of it is being created by skilled writers who go to the trouble of fact checking their work and providing proper citation to support their claims.

The “professional” mainstream media should be worried about blogging. Particularly given the fact that a lot of talented professional journalists out there are out of work because biased corporate media has replaced them with camera-ready shills. If anything, blogging may inspire a return to hard-hitting stories.

I’d rather read an intelligent and insightful blog post that illuminates some serious issue than waste my time on those perfectly edited PR fluff stories that is presented to as professional journalism by a corporately owned media.

As for immaturity and ranting, the mainstream media is far better at it than we bloggers could ever be. Bill O’Reilly has that market cornered.