As I continue blogging, I continually ask myself if what I’m doing is journalism. While I do write for a newspaper, and I consider that aspect journalism, the simple commentary that I add on this blog is different. What is it exactly that I am doing?
What I like to classify it as is acting as a columnist or an opinion writer. While I am writing original material, I am more critiquing what is going on in the world as opposed to actually reporting it. I am clearly laying out my opinion on the topics, and am not necessarily giving both sides of the story; therefore I am not really acting as a journalist.
Journalists are given special privileges, they act as the fourth estate, and they have certain responsibilities because of this. Journalism gives off the impression that you are delivering facts, that you have many sources, and that you are to a certain degree an expert on the topic. While I like to think I have the “expert” title, I am certainly not delivering facts and I definitely don’t have any key sources in the NHL. The stories that I’m commenting on, those were written by journalists, my writing however is not. What I write should be taken with the notion that I am spinning my words to try to attempt you to agree with me.
One professor once said that, “Journalists don’t tell you what to think. Journalists tell you what to think about.” There are few journalistic statements I agree with more, and blogs are for the majority, about telling you what to think.
This is why I am not a journalist.
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