Question of the day: What's the difference between a blogger and a journalist? | Welcome to Linda Ikeji's Blog

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Friday 30 April 2010

Question of the day: What's the difference between a blogger and a journalist?

I regularly get invitations to press conferences/media parley.
I never go.
I always say I'm not a journalist, I'm just a blogger.
When I said this recently, someone asked me - what's the difference?
So I ask, what's the difference between a journalist and a blogger?
I have my own opinion but I want to hear yours first
Please share your thoughts

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Linda, i fink there is only a very thin line between a blogger and Journalist, and it might take ages to dfine it...but I fink the reason u get invited to press conferences is just cos u av a medium, a popular one at that..

Anonymous said...

Bloggers are less formal than journalist...bloggers can post any story without credibility behind it.Bloggers usually dont investigate stories themselves they just copy and paste(most times) from others sources and most of them do not usually even cite their sources or give credit to the original source

Godwithus said...

Linda, A journalist is a professional while anybody can be a blogger. In order words a journalist undergoes a formal training while a blogger need not undergo any formal training.

Anonymous said...

This is a very good question. A blogger may not be a journalist if he or she is not qualified or trained as a journalist.

Anybody can be a blogger from various backgrounds and cannot claim to be a journalist by writing blogs and blogging events, although it is linked to online journalism.

Journalism courses are recommended for bloggers than want to become online journalists because it will be a thing of the future.

In Nigeria, you do need to register with the Nigeria Union of Journalists before you can call yourself a journalist. Other countries have their own requirements.

So studying journalism does not mean you are a journalist just as having a Law degree does not mean that you are a lawyer until you are called to the bar in Nigeria.

Godwithus said...

I got another idea. A journalist is someone who earns a living through the practice of journalism while a blogger may not necessarily earn a living from blogging but blogs because he or she has has access to medium to express him or herself.

Dr. Chinedu said...

As a print journalism graduate, I must say that blogging is an answer to the end of the traditional journalism era. Blogging is not all about posting on your blogs like blogger, wordpress; people also blog on facebook, twitter and other networking sites. Some will argue that a blogger is also a journalist. That is definitely true because anybody could transmit news through any reliable medium. Linda, since you have a lot of traffic on your blog, you share news, your points of view, photos, they are all acceptable way of nontraditional journalism today.

Anonymous said...

A blog is an opinion piece based on fact or fiction and could b biased but a journalist piece is based on verifiable fact and not the opinion of the writer

Godwithus said...

Linda, so what is your own opinion?

Anonymous said...

A jounalist finds d news.A bloger publishes it.

Anonymous said...

There's a big difference.

Comments above me said it all. Anyone can blog, journalism is a profession.

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Artikelblogq said...

hi , linda , greeting viter know my name . My blogger from Indonesia . I am very happy to read the article that you serve. Lots of useful information here .

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