Blog or Perish

Written on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 1:27 pm | by butch

Luis Teodoro, journalist, political analyst, former Dean of the U.P. College of Mass Communications and BusinessWorld columnist, raised a few hackles with his statements made in a recent interview with ABS-CBN, to the effect that:

Journalists should consciously go into blogging to set examples.

The implication being that bloggers need to learn a thing or two about writing and journalistic standards from traditional media practitioners. Dean Teodoro goes on to say:

Many of those who post information online are irresponsible. Sometimes, it becomes damaging. It disrupts the democratic dialogue.

There should be a means of self-regulation . Journalists should be models online. The principles of (responsible) journalism should apply. Ethics should show in your blogs.

Ateneo de Manila University communication professor Chay Hofileña, quoted in the same piece, agreed with Teodoro that journalists can set examples online. Addressing bloggers, she said:

There should be verification and fairness even if it’s an opinion piece. There should be an effort to get the other side no matter how little the space you allot.

Their observations are valid, if a tad judgmental, and if you read the entire article thoroughly, Teodoro and Hofileña have good things to say about the blospshere. They admit that its increasing influence will only grow and is in fact already a force to be reckoned with. Hence, their prescription that mainstream journalists and other communicators embrace the new medium.

“This recognition by mainstream media of the online medium is a big thing,” Teodoro said. He acknowledged that blogging and other means of information-sharing online “is going to be a very big challenge” for the mainstream news media. “As technology advances, competition will grow.”

Teodoro pointed out that there are “sound reasons” for editing news. While blogging is “empowering,” he said it has its “downside” if you “affect other people negatively.” Hence, the need for responsible journalistic standards in blogging.

Hofileña acknowledges that blogs provide a venue for the marginalized to expose information and voice out opinions that are otherwise neglected by mainstream media.

“There are things journalists miss,” said Hofileña. “Those who were in the blogosphere at the start were not journalists. They were there because of the lapses of journalism. They provided an alternative viewpoint.”

It was probably the condescending and hectoring tone of Teodoro’s statements that irked more than a few bloggers, to the point that his past as an old-line Marxist was dug up and attacked. The fact that he may be perceived by some as an unrepentant old coot, who has clung to his old guard dialectics all these many years, should not blind us to the legitimate ideas he espouses.

I have written about this issue previously, so please bear with me if it seems you’ve read this before.

There are two contending schools of thought on the matter. One posits that ethical guidelines are necessary in order that blogging may be practiced responsibility. The other says that such a “code of ethics” is anathema in the freewheeling blogosphere.

The view that blogs should be subject to an ethical code has been famously espoused by Adam Cohen in an article in the New York Times (May 8, 2005) in which he argues that bloggers should hew to journalistic standards now that blogging has practically become mainstream (at least the most prominent blogs with the most traffic). Cohen argues that bloggers may need to institutionalize ethics policies now that they have gained the influence and clout to be taken seriously as a “new” medium. Per Cohen, the real reason for an ethical upgrade is that it is a right way to do journalism, online or offline. Of course, this assumes that blogging is a form of journalism and that therefore journalistic standards apply. This appears to be Teodoro’s view as well.

The divine lawyer-blogger Ann Althouse says (addressing Cohen) bluntly: “We don’t need your code of ethics”. Althouse points out that market forces are enough to keep bloggers in line. Readership is built on the strength of a blogger’s writing and one should be ready to be constantly and instantly judged by the mouse clicks of fickle readers who vote with their fingers.

Althouse has a point. Most bloggers see themselves as outside the mainstream media and contend that they do not need journalistic ethics because they are not journalists. They are pundits, activists, philosophers, humorists, advocates of one or another cause or fall under any number of diverse and overlapping categories. But they are not journalists. There’s the rub.

As the word is commonly understood, journalists are those who practice the profession of journalism or who write for newspapers or magazines. But I would propose that bloggers are, going by the broad definition of the term, journalists. A journalist is anyone who “keeps a journal, diary, or other record of daily events”. The majority of blogs are chronicles, in one form or another, of life events which happen in the bloggers’ environment.

But I would guess the vast majority of bloggers would disagree with my proposition. The bloggers of my acquaintance are an intelligent and discerning lot and, for the same reasons, do not like to be pigeonholed or told what to do. They are jealous of their perceived independence and protective of the democratic space they have carved out for themselves. They see traditional media as being tied-down to institutions or beholden to certain interests, and will thus resist being labeled as journalists.

But no one can deny the growing popularity and influence of blogs as a source of information and opinion. The blogosphere is evolving and, inevitably, norms of conduct will develop as part of the evolutionary process. It is therefore never too early to start discussing ethical standards, not as a way stifling the free spirits online, but in order to provide guideposts of conduct and morality in the wild-west landscape of cyberspace.

I am well aware of the freewheeling nature of the blogosphere and that its wide reach and spontaneity will not lend itself to regimentation or even self-regulation. This is how things are and should be. The dynamism of the blog is precisely what makes it so compelling and effective as a new medium. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to regulate it.

But this doesn’t mean that bloggers should eschew the idea of a voluntary code of ethics altogether. Adherence to standards of quality and ethical principles give credibility to blogs. This in turn fosters trust and civility between bloggers and the public in general. If blogging is to be taken seriously, beyond simply being a means of individual self-expression , there must be constancy to certain ethical norms which would assure readers that the blog is worth their while. Of course, such standards or values may not necessarily be same as that adopted by mainstream media. And it is improbable that a single code would be right for all bloggers under all circumstances. There are no absolutes in the blogosphere.

Thus, unwittingly, I find that I have one foot in the Teodoro camp. Let the mainstream journalists and writers engage the medium on its own terms. Let them find out if the new environment would be conducive to their writing. I suspect that this expansion of their horizons would be good for them. And for us bloggers as well, as new ideas and standards will only broaden, rather than restrict, healthy online discourse.

At the same time, I find myself echoing Ms. Althouse: “Take your code of ethics and shove it”. To mainstream journalists and writers: You will be entering our world now, and it behooves you to learn the mores and standards of this new environment rather that to bring with you pre-conceived ideas of how things should or should not be done. Keep an open mind, and you might just discover that there is very little, if any difference, between the professional values we all abide by, off- or online. Transparency, fairness and accountability is highly valued in the blogospshere. Needless to say, so is truth. Ditto for passion and creativity, and so on.

That said, there is an unstated premise in Teodoro’s words. A warning to traditional journalists and writers, actually: Ignore the blogosphere at your own peril. It will not go away, and will only grow and soar to even greater heights. If you refuse to acknowledge this reality, you risk a long, slow but sure slide into irrelevancy. To paraphrase a dictum beloved by academics: Blog or Perish.

A final word to Teodoro and company: Lighten up, guys! No need to be so grim and determined about shaping the blogosphere according to your image. Just enjoy the ride, and take the attitude of columnist John Nery that this just might be where you will find the most exciting writing this side of the planet. As Nery narrates:

In last week’s episode of Che-Che Lazaro’s TV program “Media in Focus,” the second panel of guests (PR practitioner Richard Burgos, Melinda Quintos de Jesus of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, and me as a journalist-blogger) discussed the role of online media in the wake of Cebu City’s Black Suede scandal. The discussion ranged widely, from the loss of traditional media’s gate-keeping function to the make-or-break importance of trust or credibility.

I got the impression, especially after the show, that some of my colleagues in the so-called mainstream media find the so-called blogosphere a threatening thicket, a tangled web best avoided. To be sure, most of the millions of blogs accessible online make sense only to their authors and friends. (I do not know this for a fact, but take it as a reasonable assumption.) But it’s the same way with the cable multi-verse: Not every channel is National Geographic.

It would be foolish to deny one’s self the online equivalent of 500 channels, when some of the most exciting writing can be found on them.

There are many more writers worth following on the Web (I subscribe to 68 RSS feeds; Chinese bridge-blogger Isaac Mao told me he subscribes to over 700). In the Philippines, colleague Manolo Quezon’s blog (quezon.ph) is the indispensable political website. Some of the best writing is found in the blogs of two theater critics, the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s own Gibbs Cadiz and The Philippine Star’s Exie Abola. And novelist Butch Dalisay posts pictures as well-tempered as his prose. Verily, a virtual embarrassment of riches.

It would be a shame if you miss out on this virtual embarrassment of riches. And a chance to contribute to the collective wealth online.

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About The Author: butch is a lawyer by profession and blogs as The Warrior Lawyer.

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10 Responses to “Blog or Perish”

  1. Blog, Blogging, Blogger, Bloggers » A Filipina Mom Blogger » on May 4th, 2008 2:47 pm

    […] blogging from an interview of Luis Teodoro. My husband posts an entry in FilipinoVoices.com, Blog or Perish on this […]

  2. spliceanddice on May 4th, 2008 4:55 pm

    One point that these people who want to shove into blogger’s mouths their so-called ’standards in journalism’ may have missed entirely is the idea that ‘negative’ posts can also give birth to positive results. And the other way can also be true: positive posts can also pave the way for negative thoughts, and actions even.

  3. Nick on May 4th, 2008 5:01 pm

    I cannot hold Luis Teodoro as an authority in blogging, and thus I cannot respect his views on blogging, especially when it seems to me that he knows very little about the topic itself.

    I respect his views and opinions, but not on this issue.. a dying breed these dinosaurs are.. you are right Butch.. perish they must, those who cannot adapt.

  4. butch on May 4th, 2008 5:21 pm

    Dean Teodoro is definitely no authority on blogging. And he’s groping on the issue, trying to make sense of the changes brought about by online media, although his point of reference is MSM. Therein lies his difficulty, I think. He’s comparing apples to oranges.

  5. Lester Cavestany on May 5th, 2008 1:16 am

    If by ‘Code of Ethics’, you mean ‘a set of rules that every one must follow or else..’ then I don’t agree with it.

    But if ‘Code of Ethics’ refers to ‘a set of guidelines voluntarily embraced by those concerned’ then maybe we should weigh the advantages and disadvantages of having one.

  6. Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose » Blog Archive » A proposal lacking a consensus on May 5th, 2008 2:47 pm

    […] The punditocracy provokes the blogosphere: veteran journalist Luis Teodoro, as quoted in Journalists urged to blog, set examples online and gets shrieked at by Philippine Commentary (seconded by stuart-santiago) and Journal of the Jester-in-Exile. A sober analysis is provided by The Warrior Lawyer in FilipinoVoices.com. […]

  7. Pochero on May 6th, 2008 1:14 pm

    Journalists to set examples? Examples of what? Envelopmental journalism? So much for journalistic codes of ethics.

  8. BrianB on June 15th, 2008 4:48 pm

    Longish post… But a word for Teodoro and other critics. Blog demographics are smart, savvy and less likely to fall victim to misinformation compared to newspaper readers. Secondly blog readers are not passive like newspaper readers. In news posts, many readily volunteer criticism or suggestions (I’m putting it mildly). And third. Any respected and independent blogger has to open her comments section. A heavily moderated comments section will only send readers away. This is the built-in corrective in every blog. Find anything misguiding in the main article, complain in the comments section.

    What is indispensable in blogging is the independence that bloggers enjoy. Most journalists work for a company or corporation. They have bosses and editors.

  9. BrianB on June 15th, 2008 4:55 pm

    Just to add. There are problems in blogging and to the Internet in general, but most of these problems have ready solutions within blogging and the Internet itself.

  10. Nick on June 15th, 2008 6:02 pm

    @BrianB, very well said.. but as I said, he knows not much about blogging.. I feel sorry that he thinks he knows though.. What can we say about a man who thinks he’s wise on a subject he knows little about. I respect the guy, and I think he should just stick to topics well within his realm of knowledge and expertise..

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