Young Journalists about Blogging

We’ve heard many different opinions of experts and professionals now – arguments for and against blogging, statements about the present situation as well as imagination of the future of journalism and blogging.

Who will be most concerned by the development of the relation between old and new media is the next generation.

In order to find out what future journalists think about blogging, I made a “mini” survey among some students of the Department for Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Gothenburg (as I happen to be in Sweden at the moment).

In the following I’ll give you the most interesting answers to each of the 3 questions I asked.

In the brackets behind the quotes you find name/program/term/country of the quoted student.

So here are the opinions of some future journalists:

1) Do you have any experiences with blogging?

“I sometimes read blogs, mainly blogs about specific subjects such as politics, technology, traveling (…).”

(Patrik/Journalsitic/4/Sweden)

“I’ve tried to blog a couple of times, but I find it hard to write in an interesting way about something that’s not interesting.”

(Signe/Journalistic/1/Sweden)

“I have a blog and I have blogged since 2006. I also read many blogs.”

(Valdemar/Journalistic/2/Sweden)

“I read blogs, but I haven’t got any of my own.” (5x)

(Jenny/Science of Media and Communication/2/Sweden)

2) What is your attitude towards blogging/bloggers?

“I consider blogs an interesting alternative to traditional media.”

(Anders/Journalistic/2/Sweden)

“… many blogs (…) are too personal and not very interesting to read.”

(Valdemar/Journalistic/2/Sweden)

“I don’t like blogs about what kind of coffee one drinks or who bought a pink skirt yesterday. (…) to me it seems like most of the blogs are ego-boosts…”

(Signe/Journalistic/1/Sweden)

“Blogs are a great way to express yourself.”

(Jenny/Science of Media and Communication/2/Sweden)

“I think there are far too many of them …”

(Patrik/Journalsitic/4/Sweden)

“…it can be a nice opportunity to get free entertainment, information and inspiration.”

(Katrin/Publizistik/5/Germany)

3) How do you think, will the relation between journalism and blogging develop in the future?

“Maybe journalists are going to use more information from blogs in the future.”

(Jenny/Science of Media and Communication/2/Sweden)

“I don’t think that blogging can replace journalism. (…) I think blogging is more a hobby and something for private affairs.”

(Katrin/Publizistik/5/Germany)

“Traditional media and blogging will merge more and more and individual journalists will use blogs to present their work.”

(Anders/Journalistic/2/Sweden)

“I have no idea. I don’t think so much about that. Or blogging. At all.”

(Signe/Journalistic/1/Sweden)

“I think the traditional media (…) will surrender. But blogs can be a good complement. Especially in countries where the international media are forbidden to visit.”

(Valdemar/Journalistic/2/Sweden)

“Blogging is a good way to show your writing abilities and might be a way to start a career as a journalist.”

(Josefin/Science of Media and Communication/2/Sweden)

“Journalists will probably begin to blog more. Blogs will however remain separated from “real” journalism: Most educated journalists will still work for newspapers …”

(Patrik/Journalsitic/4/Sweden)

My findings:

- I didn’t have to explain what a blog is to anyone and they could answer all of

my questions, they are familiar with blogs and have even made up their minds about their importance (some more, some less, of course)

- The clear majority reads blogs from time to time, doesn’t constantly follow a

specific one and doesn’t write an own blog

- Many know that there are interesting blogs one can gain from (knowledge

or at least entertainment) but find the big mass of blogs irrelevant, boring

and often too personal.

- They see positive aspects about blogging: it’s a way to express oneself and

an alternative to traditional media.

- These future journalists don’t question the further existence of blogs.

- They don’t seem to be afraid of them as they are convinced that blogs won’t

replace traditional journalism.

- They see journalism and blogs merge as journalists start blogging and use

information provided by bloggers.

Summary:

The journalism students I asked were neither hyper enthusiastic

about blogs nor radically against them. They seem aware of what is going

on in today’s media buy looking at it from different angles mentioning both

positive and negative aspects.

P.S: I just have to say that doing a survey among journalists is the greatest and easiest thing one can do – they would never say no as the know exactly how it is to desperately try finding people who take 5 minutes to answer some questions.

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT, COLLEAGUES!