Interview Transcript
Question: Are bloggers journalists?
David Patrick Columbia: I’ll tell you. When I was in Abu Dhabi at this festival of thinkers, there was a panel on which I sat in which they discussed the future of media. And most of the people were people who are very well established in media – people who work for mainstream media: Washington Post, etc., etc. They all were attacking the bloggers on the Internet. They just couldn’t get over it. And one person said that they had no credentials to be journalists. And another person said that they were shrill. Now I don’t think I am shrill, and I’ve had enough experience now that you could call it credentials; but I think everybody has a right to express their opinions.
And I think what’s wonderful about the Internet, and what’s wonderful about the business of being a blogger is that people definitely have the opportunity to pursue those things that interest them and even report on them. And it’s my personal feeling, since I’m a person who reads the Internet a lot, that those people who have that kind of enthusiasm are doing it. And some of them are doing it really, really well. And I think they may very well be the future of journalism. And I think that the newspaper business – the print media, and also the television media – have a problem in the sense that they are so influenced by corporate and money that they have stopped thinking, and they’re basically following the party line. Bloggers don’t have to do that. They can be independent by the nature of who they are. And I think therefore there’s some real great possibilities there.
Question: How has technology changed what you do?
David Patrick Columbia: Well technology has given David Patrick Columbia the opportunity to go out into the world and present himself and pursue the things that interest him. The reason I started my web site was because after I’d had a fairly successful career in print in New York writing about “society”, I had absolutely no interest in me whatsoever from anybody in print media. And I knew that there were a lot of people, just like that little boy who grew up in Massachusetts, out there in the world who were very interested in what I did. And I saw the Internet as an opportunity to reach those people everywhere in the world. And I’ve learned since from my experience that it’s true.
Conducted on: October 29, 2007
Are bloggers journalists?
Founder, The New York Social Diary
David Patrick Columbia talks about the media establishment attacking bloggers, and why he thinks this is wrong.
December 26, 2007 | In Arts & Culture, Media & Internet
Discuss
eileen fleming on January 16, 2008, 9:39 PM
This civilian journalist has been to Israel Palestine 5 times since June 2005.
This civilian journalist is the only USA media with the ‘thatchers’ to stream 2005 and 2006 video of Mordechai Vanunu the whistle blower of Israel’s WMD Program, who is forbidden by Israel to speak to foreigners or leave Jerusalem.
Vanunu was sentenced to 6 months more in jail for 2004 interviews he gave and the MSM has been MIA all during his historic 1 1/2 year long trial.
This civilian journalist has been doing their job.
On January 7, 2008 Israel backed down on sending Vanunu back to jail and gave him community service instead.
Israel and the USA Government are well aware of my video interview with Vanunu:
“30 Minutes with Vanunu” which is FREELY streaming on WAWA along with Vanunu’s video messages to Bush, Hillary and USA Christians to WAKE UP that Israel is NOT a democracy unless you are a Jew.
WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
John Hryniewicz on April 14, 2008, 10:33 PM
Yes, it’s definitely wrong to attack bloggers. They aren’t going anywhere and provide a valuable means of discussion outside the control of corporate media for the most part though some of the bigger blogs are certainly well financed.
I wouldn’t call them Journalists or reporters though.
They’re from the rich American tradition of the pamphleteer.
Kirk LaPointe on May 13, 2008, 7:59 PM
More and more our craft is going to discover the value of the so-called pro-am mix of journalism, involving not only the newsrooms but a community’s expert commentators. I suspect we’re going to find many of those in the blogosphere, and while I share some of the views on this thread that some of the bloggers are writing post-Google searching in their pajamas in the basement, I notice more and more of them at events gathering the same information as our journalists (only distributing their content far faster, usually from the scene). While it’s true that a lot of journalism involves standards and practices not evident to everyone with a blog tool, a surprising number of bloggers are getting better and more credible in a hurry. They’re making a contribution to the public sphere and I think conventional journalists have to be careful not to dismiss what they create.
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