30
Apr

Can we please give the term ‘blogger’ the kiss off

Posted by Steven Hodson in Wednesday, April 30th 2008      

I am a professional. 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.

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    I kinda like the old school "webmaster."

    Well, okay, that's not a very complete label either and it certainly has some off connotations - not the least of which is that, for me, anytime I hear that title, I think of Dungeons & Dragons. Something about the "-master" part of it.

    I do prefer to say that I write posts or articles rather than blogs. Just feels more right. I think I put more effort into the actual craft of writing than the term "blog" would suggest. Maybe that's a funky perception of mine based on the sour taste that so many "pro" bloggers leave in my mouth.

    (We've all encountered these folks for whom blogging is just some kind of "get rich quick" plan and their blogs clearly reflect that attitude. And why is is that there's a disproportionate share of those self-proclaimed "pro" bloggers who're like, maybe 13 years old?)

    Anyway, I've sorta become comfortable with referring to my site as a "blog" - although I think it runs much deeper than that - but not so comfy with calling myself a "blogger." "Web author" has a nice ring to it...
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    • v
    While I am comfortable with the term "blogger" I still feel it has odd connotations to people in the offline world who aren't immersed in all this social media stuff. I still think whenever I tell someone new about the blog, they have a vision of a super-nerd-loser typing at a computer at 3 AM in a dark room surrounded by servers with empty pizza boxes lying around (no offense if that's accurate in your case). Then if they're okay with it, the next question I inevitably get is "don't you worry about privacy issues? I wouldn't want other people reading about my life." There are definitely some blogging stereotypes. We have a lot of work to do to over come these concepts and I'm willing to challenge them going forward.

    As for bloggers becoming more mainstream and possibly replacing "old media" - I'm all for that, but as long as we don't become "old media" in the process. As in, losing our original voice or compromising values for the dollar.
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    I agree that there are a lot of sterotypes to overcome and like you I am
    willing to challenge on the road forward. As for us becoming the old media
    we could replace some will end up like them but in the end it is our readers
    that will keep us honest as long as we listen to them and if we don't then
    like the old media that has been supplanted those will be replaced by
    something newer.

    Our biggest advantage is our readers and the willingness to take part in
    conversation.
    • ^
    • v
    I'm just starting to feel comfortable with that title. I don't mind it at all!
    • ^
    • v
    I see you have Google ads, but I see you're not afraid to bash google over the head with the baseball bat. While I may not always agree with your opinions of Google, there's no doubt in my mind that your use of adsense does not cause a favorable bias towards Google.

    Scoble now advertises seagate on his blog. So what? If he writes about SEAGATE, I might read something into it, but outside of that, who cares? Same for Mark Cuban (who is anti-ads for bloggers) and has no advertising on his blog (I don't think he needs the adsense money!) if he writes about HDNet or the Dallas Mavericks I know he has a personal bias as he owns both entities. The whole issue is a tempest in a teapot.

    I'd be more interested in knowing why you care about the terms. Do they hold you back personally in any way. Do you think it matters to your readers? If so, I'd be very interested to read why.
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    I care because I think that the labels we have been handed could be proving to be a negative for those writers who have come up through the blogging world and now want to be taken seriously. Granted many of them might say they don't care but it is my feeling that those writers that have been doing for a long time and consistently produced quality content deserve to be taken seriously regardless of the media old or new.

    I also think that readers are getting smarter about this and I have seen on a few occasions where readers have left comments about the term blogger and how it is become a null term to them. For readers like this and I think the number is growing there is no difference between some-one who is writing for any of the major blogs as part of a team and a reporter or journalist working for a major newspaper.

    Whether it matters in the long run I don't know - I'm just expressing my feelings on the matter more than anything else.

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