Thanks to the ground-breaking technological advancement and the evolution of social media, nowadays anyone can write, publish or share content online. Decades ago, such a privilege was a reserve of established journalists and media houses. Blogging is the new way of reaching a bigger and a more diversified audience. Unlike print media, which is restricted to a given geographical locality, a circulating viral blog can be read by millions of people around the globe within a span of a few minutes. But one may ask; is blogging the new form of journalism? Are bloggers as credible or experienced as journalists? Is there even a difference nowadays between a blogger and a journalist?

The angle of objectivity

To some extent, a blogger can be considered a journalist as far as the definition of ‘journalism’ goes. which is the dissemination of news to the society. Both a blogger and a journalist may inform, entertain and enlighten the online community, but from very different angles. The success of a blog or any other online platform so to speak, hinges on its popularity. This means that the primary focus of any successful blogger out there, whenever publishing any online content, is how many rounds a given article will make in the internet. In short, the content to be published is crafted in such a way so as to appear more appealing or even attractive to a wider audience.

On the other hand, the primary focus of a journalist is to publish accurate, well researched, informative content to the world. Note that it does not mean that a blogger cannot be trusted with the truth, it only means that with the blogger, ‘truth’ is a relative word.

To sum up the debate whether bloggers are journalists or not, it’s safer to conclude that each of them have different roles to play. Whereas a journalist is supposed to be impartial and brutal in their writing, sometimes we require the more opiniated approach of a blogger in order to grasp some concepts better. Take for example two articles written on how to improve relationships, one by a blogger and another one by a professional journalist. You will find the blogger’s write-up friendlier or more helpful than the journalist’s.

Both journalism and blogging require very different types of skill sets and writing styles. And so a blogger may not be considered a journalist but he is in no way less important, as far information is concerned.