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I think it is interesting that many of the people that say blogging is not journalism are the same people that have disdain for the term PR 2.0 and regard digital PR as being exactly the same as old style public relations.

How can that be so? In a way I think they are wrong on both counts.

There are thousands upon thousands of bloggers and most have little relevance or influence. For many of these people if it is simply about the pleasure and excitement of being able to self publish.

For those that operating at the apex of the pyramid the similarity between what they do and what a good journalist albeit specialist does bears a great deal of scrutiny.

I wish people would stop putting definitives on bloggers. Some are journalists. Some are not. Some are media. (I would argue most.) Some are not. Some are credible. Some are not. Each should be approached and dealt with individually, just like members of the media and/or journalists should have been all along.

Sorry. Rough day. Ranting.

Glad to see you back, Todd!

In the new media age, people are exposed to tons of information. They want someone to filter the noise a little. Whether it's offering an opinion or just finding the upcoming trends before the mainstream media, bloggers aren't just telling the news. In that sense, bloggers, to me, are evolved reporters.

Well said. As mainstream media struggles to find a workable business model, reporters are increasingly turning to bloggers as a source of domain expertise. This only magnifies bloggers' influence. You don't have to admit every blogger to your event, but you should admit those who matter to you. As long as you state the selection criteria clearly, let 'em in.

Out of curiosity, what characteristics bring Techcrunch and Huffington Post up to that gold standard level?

Maybe it's just semantics, but bloggers *use* media (as a plural of medium) as do reporters. Blogs are media as are newspapers, magazines and TV. Twitter is, of course, another medium.

I think you should be asking if blogging is journalism, or if bloggers are 'the press' or something along those lines.

Again, maybe just semantics, but the misuse of the word 'media' gets under my skin.

There is a lot of generalisation in this post. All bloggers, just as all journalists were not created equal. Likewise all media are not equally valuable.
But blogs are another way in which people can consume content...an addition to the array of media available and one which may be the sole medium or one of a range of media a person wishes to consume. All this depends on the individual and their preferred method of content consumption.
Valuable, well researched content is not the sole remit of the blogger or the journalist. But blogs that deliver this value can certainly be referred to as 'media' in the context of this post.
As for the 'press badge' question? Just as with any effective outreach strategy when you need to evaluate that the voice is relevant and well read, those appropriate to the exhibition audience should be viewed as press. They are equally as valuable to the organisers, exhibitors or industry concerned.

How do you feel about restructuring how we use language? Approach a local newspaper editor to talk about the differences between traditional media, old media, new media, digital media, online media, and social media; and you are likely to see more head scratches and eyebrow raises than actual conversation.

Rather than rehashing the blogger vs reporter argument which is but a different form of the newspaper reporter vs magazine reporter vs trade journal reporter argument, why not replace the word blogger with online journalist and replace the word reporter with print journalist or some variant thereto?

Well, whatever else they are, bloggers are probably your customers, and that alone is a good reason for treating them well.

IMNSHO.

Wow - a lot of great responses. I am very grateful, especially after taking a week off.

@Jason and @Jane (and @Colin & @Ari, to a lesser extent) - I hear ya on the generalizations inherent in a post like this; I struggled with it. But for now at least, I think most people place bloggers (regardless of credential) and mainstream media in separate buckets. That's what the post attempts to address.

@Zach - HuffPo and TC are, to me, differentiated by huge audiences and the contributions of heretofore "traditional" journalists (e.g. Schonfeld at TC).

I actually just blogged about this topic as well. We had the same results for a client who was featured in Time Magazine and on a blog in the same week. The client received 250 inquiries from the blog post and only 50 from Time. Pretty interesting. . .

Out of curiosity, who did you pitch to Perez? I've never seen him write about anything non-celebrity based. Congrats! I am not the least bit surprised that the hit garnered results.

@todd I agree that most people place bloggers in a separate 'bucket'. The question is 'should they?'.
I believe all should be treated on the value of their content to the consumer which means the 'equality' is down to skill, knowledge and the buy-in of their community, not blog v mainstream or blogger v journalist.
But a great conversation nevertheless! Thanks Todd.

I agree that you should give press badges to bloggers, and don't apply double standards anymore. But we sometimes find that some bloggers themselves still do: They are offended when receiving being adressed or approached as 'press'. But as soon as there are free 'press' entries for a big event, they are first in line to give a call... (or maybe that's just the Dutch everything -for-free spirit out here ;-)

Ok interesting. With regards to your first criteria, would you then lump bigger tech blogs like Ars Technica, Engadget, BGR and Gizmodo into the mix? TC only does a little over 5M pageviews/month - there are plenty of vastly larger audiences out there...

The second criteria, "contributions of heretofore "traditional" journalists", is a bit more odd to me. For example, if a Times reporter did a weekly guest spot on his son's video game blog, would push the blog towards media status?

By the way I'm not arguing here - in fact I agree with you for the most part. I'm just trying to see where you view 'the line'.

Interesting question. I noticed yesterday that IBM's corporate site (press releases) has a link to thenewsmarket's videocafe so that registered bloggers can get images and video.

This registration is with thenewsmarket, not with IBM, and I don't know how much checking goes on ... but I still think it suggests that IBM's PR team are recognising that bloggers are part of their audience. This is the first blogger oriented link from a corporate site I've noticed like this; if there are others, I'd like to know.

I have read and approved this message. :P

Great post Todd! I have read about this same topic on several blogs lately. I think this is one of those crossover points that the mainstream is trying to deal with. I'm not sure if you saw these this post by David Meerman Scott about what the NY Islanders are doing: http://snipurl.com/3pbwt

A blog is a communication medium: it can have the same value and characteristics as a news program or a documentary. Die-hard bloggers seem to be the only ones who won't typify themselves as media.

Yes, the blogs (and bloggers) that function as watchdogs and social/media critics are wonderful and a step beyond the normal, everyday blogs, but they are part of the media. Trying to put them on some elevated pedestal away from the din of everything else isn't correct. If you give them a press badge. they are media.

In these untraditional times, it’s also important to establish not only if bloggers are or should be considered media but whether or not the public considers blogs to be credible source of information. Readers will always question information viewed online simply because anyone can post (Wikipedia gave this a helping hand.) However, the importance of social media is becoming more forthright in today's society and especially as a public relations tool.

As a current public relations student I have learned a great deal of the importance of social media and not to discredit it as a legitimate media source. The fact is that the public reads blogs and blogs deliver information, just like any news outlet. I believe the validity of a blog is really up to ones discretion. We live in a time where were really have to pick and choose what we believe, and blogs give us a wide spectrum of information in different ways. We have professional bloggers, who are paid and have their work edited, very similar to any news outlet. There are personal bloggers, such as Perez Hilton who has propelled himself to celebrity status with the popularity of his blog and blogs such as PR Squared, where an industry professional shares an educated opinion about his craft. These are the blogs blur the line between blogger and member of the media. These are the types of blogs that public relations practitioners seek out as a source for legitimate coverage, or so I have been taught. But anyone off the street can start a blog. It’s the mass amount of personal blogs that cause the public to be more alert of what they choose to consider a credible source of information and that make us question the world of bloggers in the first place.

Give bloggers press passes? Could be good, could be bad. I think of bloggers as having passion for a subject and so they become an expert on that subject. If they are now treated as members of the press, they will soon be turning their own corner of the world into the same thing as what you get out of the press. They will have to try and be unbiased. They will be courted by advertisers and as such will tailor their content to please the advertisers. They will get invited to press conferences based on what the conference inviter knows they will write.

The model is changing and right now is the best time to be reading blogs. Once blogs turn into the "unbiased" fair and balanced content you expect from traditional media, the honeymoon will be over. The great thing about blogs is that usually there is no video to go with them. If I never see another talking head in tv makeup it won't be too soon.

From the transmission model of mass communication perspective i think it could be argued that bloggers are a medium!