Blogger's Creed Vs Journalist's Creed

John Cass’s post, commenting on Walter William’s Journalist’s Creed  brings up an interesting question about the blogger/journalist mindset.

His eight-part creed of sorts is acknowledgement that a blogger has to walk the fine line between credibility and responsibility.

I thought this topic is very valuable since the ‘who is a blogger’ question keeps cropping up from all angles. I listened to an IT Conversations podcast --an interview-- where Dan Gillmor illuminates this very clearly. He talks of situations when a blogger who is not a professional journalist, sometimes commits an act of journalism. Does this person have to follow the guidelines that professional journalists do? I’m not talking of bias and transparency, but the legal implications. Gillmor’s fear is that one day a blogger, not understanding freedom of speech laws, will libel someone and be held accountable.

If you were to take a picture of a store employee yelling at a customer, and blogged about it, you would supposedly be doing 'an act of journalism,' in the same way that the person who captured the panic in the London Underground on a cell phone was momentarily –but not professionally --a journalist.

Should we then develop a blogger’s creed that gives those of us who write/report something to adhere to? Perhaps Gillmor’s Center for Citizen Media should consider it.

Comments

[John Cass]

I'd say yes, developing a creed would give bloggers pause for thought about their writing. Maybe the best way to develop this would be to put it on a wiki and have a group develop it.