Just to be Clear

With all of the references to journalists, columnists, and the prestige of the profession in my previous posts, I feel I must make it very clear that I am not blogging away as an aspiring journalist. Far from it. In fact, let me state it empahtically: Blogging Is Not Journalism.

My blogging certainly isn't.

Furthermore, I really don't understand all the confusion about this issue. Yet there are many (including bloggers) who high mindedly refer to bloggers as "citizen journalists". And in Sunday's paper, cartoonist Gary Trudeau put down bloggers by comparing bloggers to journalists, noting all the ways that bloggers fall short. His analysis, once again, assumes that bloggers are attempting to practice journalism.

Here is what is actually going on in the blogosphere. Bloggers write stuff and then they self-publish the stuff they write on the web. Sometimes others read what they have written. That's it. Not much more going on.