The BlogCritics yahoo group messages sometimes contain enlightening discussion about ethics, publishing, blogger credibility, journalistic training and more. Just today, the subject of “professional” v “amateur” writing came into play. Here’s what my online colleague, Robin, had to say — and it bears repeating. Hell, it ought to be memorized.
Robin Kavanagh is a writer and teaches in the English and communications departments at William Paterson University, Montclair State University, Bergen Community College, and Passaic County Community College.
I think the heart of this issue isn’t so much about who is professional and who is not, as much as it’s about the ethics and legality of what we write. Those of us who have been trained as journalists have learned about the need to back up our points with credible sources and what copyright law and libel are all about. We learned it in school and at work. Writers who have not had this experience do not consider the same issues in their work. This doesn’t make them “worse” writers than trained journalists, it makes them untrained.
The danger in this comes when stories are written and the points made are unsubstantiated by solid sources and evidence. It leaves the writer open to criticism (which we all know to expect anyway) and possible legal action. Journalists know what they need to do to avoid a libel suit. Other writers — even those with English degrees and prowess in the literary world — may not and could land in serious trouble.
One of the big debates in the PR industry right not is whether or not bloggers should be considered journalists. While most of us publish on our own blogs, BC is a self-proclaimed magazine, which makes it an editorial publication and a site that PR reps are apt to send review material to. Those who write for BC should be aware of the power of their words and the implications of it on their own reputation and that of the magazine.
I teach media writing at a NJ college, and one of the first things I teach my students is what a responsible journalist does: takes into consideration the best interests of themselves (professionally), the publication they write for, and their audience (not necessarily in that order). Bloggers don’t really understand this obligation unless they’ve had experience with publishing in the past. Blogging by nature is more of a stream-of-consciousness or diary-like type of writing that can be done by anyone. You need to have a certain amount of skill and understanding of different styles of writing to pen articles vs. simple blog posts. But I think it’s something that everyone at BC knows, or at least should.