"THE PEN" ISN'T MIGHTIER THAN THE BLOG

JAIME E. MASAGCA

 

 

The only difference perchance, literary or connotatively, between journalism from blogging is that the latter is "self-published online".  

 

Both however are " the activity or profession of writing for newspapers, magazines, or news websites or preparing news to be broadcast.  The key elements are writing and the medium of publication chosen.  But it is offensively ignorant to call "blogging as cheap because "one need not train for it", thus claims several journalists.

 

If that is so, we might as well also call the works of Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Jack London, or Charles Dickens cheap for the pure reason that the latter were not trained to write and some did not even earn an academic degree.  They may not be journalists or news writers in the strict sense but their works have conveyed sentiments, that moved passion because they write with the heart and soul "that giveth life, rather than from the pen that killeth".

 

If any blog lacks substance, then it can readily be discarded, same with news. Readers have the choice of which to their intellect has the credibility. The plain difference is that one cannot swat a fly with a PC or a mobile device unlike with a folded newspaper, which can also be made as a substitute for bathroom tissue

 

Many sentimentalists and purists have continued to figuratively live in the era of "clackity clack" of typewriters and telefax machines and have to yet to adjust and appreciate the silence, speed and soothing light of laptops and PCs.  Gone are the days when one has to write and feed it to a fax machine to the news bureau or read it aloud over the telephone for transcription on the other end as I've observed one news contributor.

 

Language, style, and purpose of writing have evolved with the medium and needs of the times that the traditional Fourth Estate, which has turned into elitists, cannot claim exclusivity of truth, fairness, and ethical standards. 

 

Bloggers and all social media users are nonetheless governed by self-imposed ethical standards and by legal restrictions that include the laws on cyber libel and data privacy.  On the contrary, it is that "layers of specialist vetting for truthfulness and fairness" a story has to pass through that's errant in the mainstream media (MSM), that the information may be adulterated or abridged by the pressure of editors and publishers, by sloppiness, or even by the self-interest of the writer.

 

Mainstream Media isn't that perfect

Precisely it was these lapses in journalism that ushered in the bourgeoning of bloggers, inopportunely accused by the MSM as purveyors of "fake news".

 

Blogging is not synonymous with trolling, the latter being paid and usually with fake accounts or credentials. Neither are they similar to the instant lawyers, tax experts, engineers, political analysts, etc. on FaceBook University or Wikipedia.

 

News no matter how truthful becomes lies and misinformation if vital details are omitted or something added. The "grassroots level news" is not exempt from being pregnant with falsities, like the recent item on the brutal murder of a coed.  News from different sources has conflicting and unfounded details that hint of sensationalizing. Or was it an indication of "copy-paste” with garnishing added for that semblance of originality?

Bloggers per se are not news writers but write opinions, perceptions, or reactions to supply canceled information and correct perversions. 

Therefore, they cannot be considered scandalmongers. 

Journalists on the other hand can by describing events from angles to suit a purpose other than to inform.

 

Not all that was academically trained in journalism have become journalists, and conversely, not all contemporary "journalists" have undergone formal training. 

 

Basic skills and styles can be developed such as command of a language that may be intrinsic, but ethics and finesse have to be pre-acquired. True skills have to be developed over time.  Journalism anchored solely on language will not survive legally and in moral acceptability.

 

I remember a journalist friend's son who came over to interview me as part of his exercise in journalism class.  At one point I asked him, "has not your father taught you how to conduct successful interviews?" 

 

Often one has to create ethical intrigues with the interviewee just to elicit the true story, particularly if the latter is indifferent or hostile, and proceed from the answers rather than sticking to the sequence of prepared questions.

 

I studied AB majors in English and Political Science but it took a weird instructor to titillate our creativity, by starting the class with an enthralling topic.  At times she would pick up anything, like a withered flower, on her way to the classroom, hang it up front and ask us to write anything about it. That was a fetus of blogging.

 

Bloggers are usually "feature writers" akin to columnists, rather than news or editorial writers, that imagination to some extent is "licensed". They have transgressed into the sphere of connotative journalism only because of the unbalanced news, that imperils national security, and damaged the Administration's foreign impressions.

 

Mainstream Media had used journalism more as a political sword, that they're bow threatened by the blogs.