Is Blogging Journalism?

This weekend I had the opportunity to speak on a panel of bloggers and journalists to debate the topic "Is blogging journalism". The discussion was at the Society of Professional Journalists Region 9 Conference on the University of Utah Campus.  It was a heated discussion moderated by Ben Winslow from Fox 13 News and featured: Eric Ethington from Prideinutah.com and myself vs. Jim Fisher, associate professor of journalism at the University of Utah and Don Meyers, reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune.

Right out of the gate, the journalists went on the offense to call out bloggers for not being real journalists.  The reasons, according to Don, were simple:  We do not have ethics nor standards.  But when Eric and I explained the ethics and standards we had imposed on ourselves, the journalists began to twist their own words to explain because we do not have editors we are not real journalists.   When we offered to have editors edit our work, they began to twist their words again.  Finally they said some bloggers could be journalists; however when the crowd jumped on this new revelation the quickly returned to the fact we didn't have ethics and we are lacking a publisher.

In the end it appeared because we had not journalists because we have not paid our dues as starving reporters with mean editors throwing ashtrays at our head.  The audience was clearly on our side and it was fun to be involved in such a healthy debate.  But the journalists will need to realize that blogging and traditional reporting will continue to merge until a hybrid model exists.  The old ways of becoming a journalists are changing and blogs have helped make that happen.  In my opinion, true blogging can be and is journalism.

I am reminded of this famous quote from an internal Western Union memo from 1876:

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." 

Traditional Journalists need to remember these words as blogging continues to advance. Western Union could have been the phone company but refused to adapt or move with the future.

In reality about half of what I do is journalism.  A lot of it is distribution of information and editorial writing.  But many times this blog has broken news or reported information for the people of South Ogden.  Either way I enjoy what I do and have appreciated all of your support.

Thanks to Ben Winslow for the invite, I had lots of fun.

See more from the USU blog and SPJ 9 blog (photos).

Comments welcome.

Photo from the UtahSPJ.com Website
Left to Right - Eric Ethington, Me, Don Meyers, Jim Fisher

Ogden Tweetup - Great First Meeting

Last Thursday was our first Ogden Tweetup.  What is a tweetup?  Well for those who are not on twitter, let me explain. A Tweetup is a meeting of twitter users that follow each other.  These are people you have not usually met in person, but only via twitter.  It is a great chance to network, connect and discuss the world.

A few weeks ago Mike Brice, aka @MikeBrice on twitter, contact me and asked if there ever had been an Ogden Tweetup.  I told them there was a few back in 2009 but nothing since.  He suggested we get one going.  Before we knew it we had an event planned and invited all our tweets.

Here is the group from the Tweetup

We met at Roosters on 25th Street and had a great time.  It was a great chance for all of us to meeting discuss the world of twitter, blogging and Ogden in general.  Though everyone at the meeting was very interesting, I wanted to spotlight a couple of the bloggers that were there.

• Indie Ogden - http://indieogden.blogspot.com/ This is a local blog about everything Ogden.  She focuses on local music, musicians and events.  But she blogs about everything in between. A fun blog to read.
• Jason and Jeffrey Dutcher - http://passionisthepurpose.com/ This is cool blog that spotlights local business, individuals and anyone who is passionate about something.  It is a cool blog and really brings out the passion in our community.

There were more people there and I will spotlight them at another time, but look out for the next tweetup and if you are not following me on twitter you can at BenJoeM2.  Thanks Mike for setting it up.

Holly on The Hill Elected to Replace Rep. Craig Frank in District 57

Whether you agree or not with the situation that put Crag Frank out of office or if you agree or not with the special election that took place tonight, you have to stand in amazement that a political blogger has been able to rise to legislator.

Holly Richardson, writer of the Holly on the Hill Blog, has successfully been chosen by delegates to replace Rep. Craig Frank in district 57.  She began her political blogging in 2009 and has quickly risen to blogger stardom in Utah as one of the top political bloggers.  Her blogging has helped her draw a large following and prepared her for this opportunity to be chosen.

The legislature and the Governor will still need to ratify what the delegates have done tonight.  Eitherway this is a huge move forward for political blogging and bloggers in general.

Congrats to Holly, I wish you the best of luck,

...maybe now I can get a link on her blog.

Read more here: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51151338-76/frank-richardson-delegates-district.html.csp

City Council Meeting Tonight - Appointment to the Urban Forestry Commission

Tonight will be South Ogden’s City Council Meeting at 6 pm. Three resolutions are on the table that will have limited affect on the regular resident; however there should be some good discussion worth noting.

Some of you have noticed my name is on the agenda for tonight’s meeting.  Mayor Minster will be recommending my appointment to the Urban Forestry Commission.  I submitted an application a few months ago and it is now time to re-appoint the members of the commission and fill an open seat.  If all goes well I will be on the commission by the end of the night.  I am excited for a chance to serve more in the community and work with city officials a little more closely.  I have wanted to be involved with this commission since I started my blog and decided to keep my 70 year old maple in front of my park strip.  Thanks for all the comments and emails I have received regarding this.

I will be blogging more after the meeting.

Utah's Top Blogger Lunch

Today I had the honor of participating in the Top Blogger Lunch that was put together by Nigel Swaby of SEO by Swaby and Janet Thaeler  aka NewspaperGrl.  I was one of the finalists in the Top Blogger Contest and so I was invited to the Lunch for the winners.  I was able to get to know a number of cool bloggers and people who love blogging.  Some of the bloggers I met were:

• Eric Ethington of prideinutah.com
• Misty Fowler of Saintless.com
• Chad Waite of DailyDerbi.com

The great thing about this medium of communication is people from all walks of life can come together and discuss about amazing issues, blogging, and technology.  It was a fun event and I look forward to more events.  I felt a little out of place since there were so many amazing bloggers and interesting people there, but it was great to be part of the event. Update: Utah News Source Official Press Release: http://ht.ly/38UNR

We had a podcast after that I was able to participate in, you can listen to it here:

Bloggerpress #2

Today was our second bloggerpress put together by Ric Cantrell and the UtahSenatesite.com.  It was an opportunity to rub shoulders with bloggers such as David Miller - Pursuit of Liberty, Holly on the Hill and Misty Fowler - Saintless.  It was an interesting experience, being their live, and not online.  As bloggers we tend to find ourselves behind our computers and cellphones.  To be in front of the legislators and ask questions was a great experience.  Though I just observed this round, I feel there is a real future for political bloggers and communication with the legislature.  

A number of issues were discussed ranging from transportation, alchole, vehicle registration, and lobbying.  Senate President Waddups, Sen Killpack, Sen. Hillyard, Sen. Valentine and more attended the event. It appeared they we're not quite sure what to think of us.  Perhaps they haven't really read our blogs or haven't made up their minds as to our usefulness. It was always good to have Glen Warchol barking behind us and attempting to get a rise out of the legislators.

As I was leaving Ric and I spoke about the future of the bloggerpress and were we go from here. We agreed our current format works well and the Utah's Political bloggers are very keen and intelligent in their blogging.    I was very excited with what we are working on with the future of blogging.  

As bloggers, some of us are caught in the middle of being a blogger/reporter or just writing down our thoughts about issues as a past time. Either way, I feel bloggers are and will be the new wave of reporters and with the efforts of the Utah State Senate this reality will come sooner than later.  Bloggers are beginning to make a real difference in Utah.  During this past session hundreds of people came to the From Where I Sit blog wanting to know about SB 199 and 208.  My fellow bloggers had similar and even greater success in influencing politics in Utah. People don't go to the Tribune website and search a topic, they Google it!  Our blogs come up first; our opinions, research and links to news articles are what they find.  A new era in Utah news and political blogging is in the works.  I am happy to play a small part in it.

SB 208 – Watch out Newspapers!

Today I was introduced to SB 208 – Creating a Legal Notice Online Depository (my title not the bills). In connection with the Senate Site and Senator Steve Urquhart a press conference was held for bloggers regarding this bill. It was a great experience to call in and watch the press conference from South Ogden; however I think I will make an effort to get down there for future ones. Senator Urquhart did a great job moderating the conversation and helping us understand the questions asked. I think this is a unique method of enlisting bloggers behind the cause of a piece of legislation, especially since it is sure to bring heated debate from the newspaper lobby.

This potential legislation would develop a searchable online database for all legal notices in the State. Currently Newspapers have the monopoly on the publishing of legal notices. It is estimated tax payers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on these legal notices alone. Sen. Urquhart mentioned some people have even been forced in to foreclosure because of inability to pay the legal notice publication fees. SB 208 would create a depository for all legal notices and make it cheaper than posting it in the newspaper, saving city government and the regular tax payer thousands of potential dollars. The bill piggy backs on the already popular public meeting notices website (See Here) and would follow a similar format. Citizens could log on and pay a small fee to upload their legal notice, and then it could be searched by topic, city and date.

"We want to create better notice and a bigger pool of people who know what is
going on," Senator Urquhart.

SB 208 could do just that, make it easier for people to find notices and cheaper for those who need to post them. This is a win/win for the consumer and local government. However, look deeper and you will see turbulence on the horizon from the newspapers of Utah. As newspapers see circulation drop, classified ad space has dwindled and ad revenue is disappearing from competition such as KSL.COM and the internet. You know there will be an all out battle to keep legal notices in the newspaper and away from a central website. This is a form of revenue for newspapers and the apparent need for such revenue is demonstrated in legislation being proposed to remove caps on legal notice publishing fees. A quick Google search brought up a website that helps newspapers publish legal notices and has already posted info against such legislation. (See here: http://www.utahlegalnotices.com/) This poorly designed and out of date website attempts to keep a placeholder on the internet to thwart such discussions of central depositories. I am sure this website will be updated quickly as the esteemed Senators bill is prepared.

On the national front, Arizona and South Dakota are working on similar legislation and have received scathing editorials from the local newspapers demanding such legislation be stopped. Their arguments include: pulling legal notices from papers cuts off the public from information, not enough people have the internet or a computer and therefore miss this important information. (Source: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/) To believe newspapers are the central and only form of communication is ignorant and pathetic. To counter these arguments you simple need to gather some basic statistics from the Newspaper Association of America. On their website, http://www.naa.org/, you can see they don't even classify legal notices as an area read by most people. According to their 2008 readership report only 95 Million adults read the daily paper and 113 Million read the Sunday paper. Computer user statistics, according to Computer Industry in America, shows there are 264 Million PC users and 220 Million internet users, as of Jan. 2009.

The argument we are cutting readers off from Legal Notices just doesn't hold water. More people have computers and use the internet than read the newspaper. Senator Urquhart's bill puts money back into the tax payers pocket and helps push information out to nearly 51 percent more people than a regular newspaper will. The newspaper industry is concerned about the loss of revenue to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do not be fooled by the future editorials and reports, this is about money for them. This is probably why Senator Urquhart wanted bloggers to get this information to help counter act the newspaper attacks to come. Smart.

Whatever the motives, I enjoyed the blogger brief and I support SB 208

City Leaders and Blogs

Buried deep into this mornings copy of the Standard Examiner, I found a simple and interesting article about cities and blogging. (See Here)

Apparently Centerville city leaders have paid consultants to help them find ways to improve their website and communication with the public. The suggestion is a blog. Antone Clark reports:

"...The Summit Group, said the city leaders could make a real connection with the public if the are willing to venture into the blogosphere. For now, it appears city officials may let the idea pass."

Mayor Ron Russell didn't think this was such a hot idea. In fact he stated, "That's just what I need, another thing to do."

Now I am not here to criticize Centerville, but rather the fact the city isn't considering a blog and surprised the Summit Group even considered a blog.

I am impressed with City Manager, Scott Darringinton's blog (See Here). But he doesn't have the biggest readership; however his posts are very informational and helpful. I am sure it will pick up in time. But his blog is a perfect example of city officials reaching out to the public.

Though the problem with city officials blogging is a blog can become dormant very quickly. Just look at diggity Mayor Godfrey's blog (See Here). The last time he posted was January 11, 2008. My rule of thumb, if you don't have anything to blog about, don't blog.  Otherwise it will your blog posts become lame.  But to start a blog just to say you have a blog can turn out to bite you in the end. Centerville and their consultants will have to weigh all of these things when and if they decide to blog.

I hope South Ogden continues it's blogging and maybe even we will see it expand to city council members, similar to how Rep. Steve Urquhart (or should I say Senator Urquhart) blogs during the legislative sessions. (See Here)

Centerville, best of luck and I hope you didn't pay too much money.

South Ogden City Manager - Blog

Welcome To South Ogden :: ::

A few days ago I was browsing the South Ogden City Website for new info about our amazing city, when I noticed that our City Manager, Scott Darrington, is a blogger. He has some amazing posts that have really opened the channels of communication with the public. This is a great forum to email questions and post comments about things that are happening. I look forward to what they do with this. Blogging has been a small past time for me during the last three years, to see our city officials embrace this form of communication is very exciting. Opening these lines of communication can lead to good things, the question is: Will we embrace this and take advantage of it? It is all up to use. Go to the website and read! Post comments and enjoy!

There is a great post about snow removal, I learned a ton!

Check out the blog at southogdencityblog.blogspot.com