What’s the difference between journalism and blogging?

What’s the difference between journalism and blogging?

At first sight blogging and journalism look very similar, but in real life there a lot of basic differences between these concepts.

If we try to understand a difference, let’s begin with the definition of each activity.

According to Merriem-Webster definition of journalism it is:

1

a  :  the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media

b  :  the public press

c  :  an academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium

2

a  :  writing designed for publication in a newspaper or magazine

b  :  writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation

c  :  writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest

As for blogging, a blog is a type of website which has entries appearing in chronological order just like a diary or journal.

   –  A blog is typically updated frequently and regularly 

   –  Blogs have an area for people to comment or respond to the blog post.

   –  Blogs may also have other areas of content and links to     other websites.

    –  Blogs can have individual authors or be a collection of authors.

     –  Blogs have a history or an archive of previous blog posts. 

      –  A blog is a collection of content that is organized repetitively. This content can take the form of basic words (copy) as well as rich media (audio, video, and embeddable objects).

      –  A blog typically focuses on a particular subject matter 

      –  A blog can be built by hand, manually through writing the post, uploading to a website and then publishing.

      –  A blog can also be managed by software, sometimes called a CMS (Content Management System), where a lot of the features are automatically created and populated.

       –  A blog typically can be read in a number of different formats including the homepage, single post page, categories, tags, and other technologies.

       –  Readers and visitors can subscribe to the blog so that they can consume the content in a variety of different means, tools, devices, and applications.                                                

       –  A blog today could take the form of microblogging (like Twitter for example),  video blogging and more which can focus on a particular type of content or technology.

So, we realize that a blogger has no real boundaries and he doesn’t care about the strict definition of his activities. 

A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from expressing your political views and changing the world to sharing your shopping list and your cat’s pictures. People will use it however they wish. 

So we can say that blogging is a means of sharing information and also of interacting. It is more about conversation than content. 

Blogs are whatever they want to be, whatever we make them. 

Sometimes it looks like there is no difference between a blogger and a journalist, sometimes there is a significant difference. 

A fundamental difference is the following: bloggers are of the internet by definition. Journalists may work online, but their role is not defined by any particular medium, whether it is digital or traditional (TV, radio, magazine, newspaper).

If you’re a journalists, then you always writes articles with specific word counts and also writes according to the some rules and regulations. 

Blogging is an open-ended process , so in this process, you’re able to write articles according to your needs which covers the topic of your blog posts for your readers.

Another key aspect of differences is that from traditional point of view bloggers are regarded as unreliable, non-authoritative sources of information when journalists are considered to be reliable and authoritative and people should go to journalists to stay informed as traditional news outlets.

Though the situation can be very different nowadays. 

Sometimes bloggers diligently investigate and reporte news stories that had been ignored and eventually make them to mainstream news outlets, while professional journalists report unverified, unreliable and false stories as fact. 

Besides, bloggers may be subject-area experts with deep professional training, experience and knowledge in their respective fields, be it about technology, fashion and lifestyle, food, travel, beauty etc. of a topic that is often greater than of a journalist (or they may not be). 

Besides bloggers also are very passionate about that topic in which they blog, whereas journalists are turned into experts in particular fields with the help of extensive training.

Though they tend to offer their opinion and analysis that links to news stories reported by mainstream media.

Professional journalists may also be domain experts with extensive training and experience, but are more likely tend to gather and report facts and opinions  from expert sources they interview.

A journalistic process usually requires finding a fact, and then determining the veracity of the fact by verifying  it with multiple sources before reporting and attributing it. 

Blogging has no such requirement or expectation. All a blogger needs is a blog, primarily defined by format- WEB page or a site comprised of a series of posts that appear in reverse chronological order, which may include links, multimedia content and a place for readers to comment.

Lately a lot of journalists take up blogging for some purposes like report observations on the fly, share story-behind-the-store facts; adopt a more casual voice than a traditional new reports allow; add context to a story by linking and commenting on other material found online, etc.

So, while all journalists may be bloggers, not all bloggers may be journalists. But of course it doesn’t mean that a bloggers can’t become a professional journalist. 

Journalism is purely a profession, but blogging may or may not be someone’s profession. Rather, he may have chosen to spend his leisure time writing about something he loves.

Another aspect of journalism vs blogging.

A blogger has a close and personal relationship with readers. In contrast, a journalist operates on behalf of an organization, so it is to some degree an “us-to-the-public” relationship. As a reader, you can feel the difference.

So far the discussion has focused on the trustworthiness of sources and professional integrity rather than the needs and wishes of the readers for whom media is supposed to serve.

Readers are skeptical, as they should be. Whether you are a journalist, a blogger you must earn the trust of the reader. By the way, both bloggers and journalists can learn a lot from each other about how to do that effectively.

Talking about trust, it seems to me that the same rules of credibility should apply equally to both bloggers and journalists.

The fact is that sometimes the most reliable and trustworthy sources of information We found are individual bloggers who have put their personal reputation on the line. Still, it’s not that easy to find them. 

When you write any type of contents whether as a blogger or as a journalist, it is very essential for you to keep the audience in mind. In audience targeting, bloggers and journalists both have different end goals. When you write article on news basis, readers are broadly read it on that time, because news is hold only for specific time , but if you write articles on your blogs, the audience will be differ. Because your readers reads your article of the time of publication and later too. 

Timing in both journalism and blogging is a essential thing for being a successful in any field. As a journalists , you can write article on time, because if only one second you late, you will not be ranked and your readers will be gone away to other place. Because every single day millions of articles are published on daily basis both in blogging and journalism.

So in conclusion the main difference between blogging and journalism looks like this:

 

 – Bloggers appeal to emotions – journalists appeal to facts

 – Bloggers can write anywhere any time they want, journalists have to be present at the events, meet people, conduct interviews

 – Bloggers can be of any profession, while journalists get professional education

 – Blogging can be a primary source of income or just a hobby, journalists write to earn

 – Blogging more subjective and personal, journalism – objective, without personal opinion 

 – Blogger creates different type of content, journalist works with one type of content

 – Bloggers have more freedom with guidelines, more flexible with timelines and language (can use slang, short incomplete sentences and phrases)