Amateurs as Professionals

As blogging has developed and evolved over the last decade, blogs have enjoyed a seemingly endless sequence of explosive moments in the media spotlight. It is in these moments that amateur bloggers—you and me—are known to capture the hearts and the steady readership of an ever-expanding mass audience. As online journalism continues to gain momentum and print media is slowly fading, it is no wonder that sizeable populations of distraught conventional journalists have been reconsidering their individual decisions to remain loyal to “old media.” In many instances, these downtrodden but determined print journalists realize their Web 2.0 dreams by launching and staffing blogs of their very own.

But let’s be honest: does a blog written by a “professional”, experienced print journalist necessarily represent a higher-quality online publication than an “amateur” blog? No way.

Given the immense number of blogs created by, written by and run by amateurs, it is important to note that each amateur blogger possesses the capacity and the tools to produce professional-quality content and to generate a product on par with mainstream, traditional media. When a blogger “plays his cards right”, amateurs blogs are able to—and certainly do—gain popularity with audiences and, eventually, credibility.

According to Lev Grossman and Anita Hamilton and Chris Mooney, two pivotal political scandals can be credited for forever changing the face of online journalism by attracting attention to the blog platform as a means for covering news. When Internet gossip-monger Matt Drudge kept a watchful eye on the Lewinsky scandal with his blog Drudge Report, he drew attention to the utilization of blogging tools as a new outlet for news coverage. He kept the world informed and up-to-date, keeping up with the rapid pace at which the scandal unfolded; later, the political blogging community took a cue from Drudge and broke a story about Trent Lott voicing a politically incorrect sentiment at a political function—a tale the mainstream media failed to cover at all. Grossman said, “Mainstream America wasn't listening, but Washington insiders and media honchos read blogs. Three days after the party, the story was on Meet the Press. Four days afterward, Lott made an official apology. After two weeks, Lott was out as Senate majority leader, and blogs had drawn their first blood.”

As time progressed, world-changing events transpired that allowed amateur bloggers to not only pick up story angles that the mainstream traditional media overlooked. Blogs crashed into households globally and many sharp-tongued and quick-witted bloggers themselves became forces to reckon with. The professionals in their newsrooms began shaking in their boots.

According to Jay Rosen, “we know [blogs are] journalism— sometimes. They’re even capable, at times, and perhaps only in special circumstances, of beating Big Journalism at its own game”. These “special circumstances” were certainly not forgettable moments in history: 9/11, the Tsunami in Indonesia, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were some of the blogosphere’s most highly-trafficked and content-heavy periods. Chris Mooney commented on 9/11 saying, “As media fumbled in the aftermath of the attacks, and a never-ending stream of events, rumors and paranoias fueled an insatiable desire for news, commentary and basic cathartic expression, the blogosphere boomed like never before. CNET commentator Charles Cooper even wrote that blogging "came of age" after 9/11.” New York Times writer John Schwartz, discussed the devastation in Indonesia and said, “The tsunami story is the biggest humanitarian disaster ever in the lifetimes of most career journalists and the blogs were somehow right there with them.”

We’re not saying that blogging is taking the place of the mainstream media; rather, blogs have carved out their own space within the mass media world—and they’re here to stay. According to Tom Curley, there is “a huge shift in the ‘balance of power’ in our world, from the content providers to the content consumers.” To Jay Rosen this “means that professional journalism is no longer sovereign over territory it once easily controlled. Not sovereign doesn’t mean you go away. It means your influence isn’t singular anymore.”

The slow process of blog legitimization has led to the birth of “Professionally written blogs at MSNBC, Slate, the Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, the Seattle Times – almost anywhere Big Media produces online news. In addition, media have enticed bloggers to transition from amateur to professional. For example, Mickey Kaus…now writers for MSN’s Slate.”

While corporations have taken to blogging, amateur blogs are a league of their own. According to a study titled Newspapers and blogs: Closer than we think? that compared blogs and newspaper stories, “data showed that blogs included a higher number of total sources and a slightly wider range of sources.” Specific data showed that “blogs included an average number of nine sources per blog posting, compared to an average of just six for newspaper stories.” Additionally, “Just two percent of newspapers stories used a blog as a source. Not surprisingly, bloggers used other blogs as sources at almost the same frequency as they used mainstream press.” Bloggers accept other blogs as legitimate sources, while newspapers remain skeptical of the credibility of blogs. This is one place where the division between professional and amateur blogging is fairly obvious, but ultimately the separation between the two remains fairly nebulous. According to an article titled The Experts vs. the Amateurs: A Tug of War over the Future of Media, “…while amateur content may not always favorably compare to its carefully vetted and professionally produced cousin, both play key roles in public discourse.”

Aside from their ability to simply keep up with the mainstream media, blogs have the unique capability to explore facets of a story that big media simply can’t cover. As an expert in the above-cited article, Wharton professor Kevin Werbach said, “User-generated content will never match The New York Times for the overall quality of coverage of the Iraq war, for example, but reading Iraqi blogs, or political blogs about the war, provides some perspectives you won't get from any newspaper.”

The bottom line: amateur bloggers have the capability to create content as high-quality as journalists who make their living working for the mainstream media. Without a doubt, bloggers shined during the Trent Lott scandal, 9/11, the Tsunami Disaster or Hurricane Katrina—amateur bloggers were reporting at a pace and quality level that was on par with professionals. These examples have demonstrated that amateurs can generate opinions and reports comparable to those of professionals. Amateur bloggers are more than “just amateurs.”