While there might be some minor points of discussion about actual dates the generally accepted time period that blogging has been around is ten years. In that time we have seen what first started out as web-logs where we could share all those wonder daily events with anyone who cared to read them evolve into something totally different.

Sure we still have folks who do use blogs in their purest form but for all intents and purposes it has become a catch phrase for MSM journalist to pile their ire on or for marketers to try an manipulate. In some cases like Mashable, TechCrunch or ReadWriteWeb they have developed into big name brands that command high dollar values. In other cases they have become the territory of a new breed of independent journalists and columnists.

One of the common points I am seeing increasingly being raised by both writers in the field and readers is a growing dissatisfaction with the use of the term blogger and blogging. Even though most have defaulted to using the term professional blogger I still feel that the inclusion of blogger as part of the descriptive is questionable. Part of the problem I have is that for writers who use the blogging platform in order to communicate with their readers they are dealing with a perception problem.

As we move forward and look to become a recognized source of news and opinion people outside of the blogosphere (and this term sucks as well IMO) are still seeing us through the tainted light of Old Media interpretations. Sure there have been attempts to use terms like citizen journalism but even that casts us in the light of being amateurs. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for things like citizen journalism as it give Old Media companies like CNN a way to tell their shareholders that they get the web.

That said where does this leave those of us that believe that we are professionals and have outgrown the confines of the concept people have of blogging. Along with that how do we know when we have crossed that fuzzy line that separates the professional writer from the personal blogger. Some would suggest that the line gets crossed when you start having advertising on your site and that true bloggers don’t.

Well, I whole heartedly disagree with that assessment mainly because I have read many writers like Louis Gray or Frederic or Jason who in my estimation have crossed that line and are very professional. I have also seen many sites where they are running advertising but I wouldn’t classify the authors as being professional.

I said in an Elite Tech News podcast not long ago that I have begun to equate professional bloggers on the same level as professionals within Old Media. For me sites like TechCrunch, Mashable and ReadWriteWeb are no different than newspapers and the writers for those sites are in effect reporters in the truest sense of the word. In addition to that I see writers like Louis Gray, Frederic or ParisLemon in the same light as columnists for magazines except that they are their own individual magazine.

For me writers who are seen by their readers and their peers as being professionals are in effect just on-line versions of their Old Media counterparts - they are the new digital reporters, the new digital journalists and the new digital columnists and in turn they deserve the same respect as their Old Media counterparts and that doesn’t include calling them bloggers.

Conversation Tags: bloggers, blogging, new media, old media, news