Are blogs "journalism"?

As a former journalist, I think I know what journalism is. I have reported on candidates over three elections. I don't consider this blog to be journalism due to the fact that I don't often interview people and report on what they say. Neither does political journalist Audrey Young on her blog.

So why No Right Turn feels the need to claim that political journalism has hit a new low because Young blogs something that he sees irrelevant is beyond me. Perhaps the writer at No Right Turn expects political blogs run by bloggers who are associated with newspapers to be reporting on news gathering, and be held to the same standards and be of similar content as the content on the paper's front page.

Why should he?

Recognise her?

Here is a little clue

Reporting statistics

Some journalists need assistance in interpreting basic statistics.

Last year, 50 percent of drownings in New Zealand were Europeans, with 23 percent Maori. This means that just over twice as many Europeans as Maori drowned, but, unlike the Herald reported, it does not mean that Europeans are twice as likely as Maori to drown.

The reason is obvious, if you haven't already worked it out: There are many times more Europeans in the country than there are Maori. Given that 80 percent of drownings are male, at least the reporter didn't say that Europeans males are 21.6 percent more likely to drown than Maori males :-)

If 15 per cent of New Zealanders are Maori and 75 percent are European, (just to make it easier) see if you can work out how many times more likely Europeans are to drown than Maori. Then work out how many times more likely Maori males - as compared to European males - are likely to drown (heh).

Just don't ask James Ihaka at the NZ Herald. But if anyone from the Herald is reading this, could they also kindly advise Mr Ihaka that in news reports, single digit numbers like four (4) are written in words, not numbers.

Where NZPA gets stories

It's interesting to see that journalists from the NZPA continue to read the DomPost every morning to get story ideas. Perhaps they should start reading a few more blogs sometime to avoid saying "the Dominion Post reported. The Dominion Post , like the Sunday Star Times, gets some of their story ideas off off the blogs, because they bother to read blogs. Even MPs are writing media releases based on what they read on blogs - Bill English comes to mind there.

I have been contacted several times by reporters regarding posts I have written on the blog. But in the most recent case, I made the initial contact through the blog and it snowballed from there to go national throughout the media and blogs and subsequently international within a few hours.

Bloggers and journalists - do this test

Those who have recently sorrowed over the question of who a real journalist is (as opposed to one of these upstart bloggers), can now rest easy. David Cohen of the NBR has compiled a failsafe test. Incidentially, Cohen was the first journalist I ever discussed journalism with.

Okay, it is clearly difficult to reach a definitive answer of exactly what constitutes a journalist – but many factors could be taken into account. On their own each factor wouldn’t necessarily be a test or journo or non-journo, but together perhaps they make a journalist. Take the 5-minute test, scoring one point for every Yes response:
If you answered Yes:0-5 times – Get back into your pyjamas. Sorry, you ain’t enough of a journalist to be entrusted with sharpening the newsroom pencils.

6-10 times – You may be a legend among the 10 people who frequent your blog, but you’re not exactly major league.

11-15 times – Hmm, maybe you could be considered a mid-grade hack.

15-plus – Wow, you’re a pro!

According to Cohen, I`m a mid-grade hack. I got the same score as David Farrar - who did pretty well seeing he hasn't got a journalism qualification and as far as I am aware, doesn't know shorthand, and doesn't get paid for blogging. And the writers of The Standard, who wanted press credentials to get into the National Party conference, would not even be entrusted with sharpening the newsroom pencils. But I did note there was no question on HTML.

More Fairfax sub-editors to be laid off

Nearly a fifth of sub-editors at Fairfax are about to be made redundant with the rest to be centralised, following the loss of 70 subs at APN last year and the loss of a whole swag of subs when The Evening Post and The Dominion papers merged. APN publishes The New Zealand Herald and Fairfax owns The Dominion Post and The Press.

Have a look at the NZPA story on this, and you'll spot at least three subbing errors. You'd think they'd sub a story on subbing correctly, wouldn't you?