Everyone has an agenda of their own. As a blogger, I make my agenda known. Do journalists do the same thing? No! They pretend not to have an agenda. I was recently interviewed for an article on blogging. And I also referred a boatload of people to the journalist. I was not quoted in the article. Nor was my company's name quoted directly. Which makes me less likely to be so helpful next time for that journalist. This, of course, was not the first time, though. So, it isn't a big deal. Press will come. I didn't help the journalist so that I'd get a quote. I know it doesn't work that way. In fact, I recently had a client that asked me to ask a print publisher friend to write an article about his company. If an article was written, he'd run advertising with them. This did not happen. And I would never ask a publisher or journalist to do that.
What most irked me about this whole process was that the journalist had the story written already. She was simply looking for examples to support the headline. And that is a big difference between blogging and journalism... When I start a post, I have no idea where it'll go. I just let my fingers go. When a journalist starts an article, they seem to have the idea and thesis already written. So, when they are doing interviews, they are just looking for material to support their claim. If that is the case, shouldn't they simply go use secondary material? So. Mr. and Mrs. Journalism: next time you are looking to fill in the blanks, go read my blog. If you want, ask me to rephrase it for you in a telephone interview or email interview, so it doesn't appear as if you *gasp* quoted a blog. On the other hand, if you'd like to have a conversation about what the most exciting things going-on are, or where I think things or going, or if you'd like some story ideas, I'd be glad to have a conversation with you. But, if you are just looking for filler quotes, this whole process of regurgitating crap into printed crap, could be a lot more efficient if you simply read my blog.
Sooz has some more to say about the whole process. And here is the article.
Well as a journalist and a blogger I can see your point. Sometimes you are assigned a story or come up with an idea and you are expected to look for people who support the idea, but it is also important to find people from all sides of the story to include.
On your blog everyone knows it is your opinion they are reading, which makes it easier in a lot of ways, but as a journalist you are supposed to remain neutral on a subject.
After blogging everyday for almost four months now, as well as answering emails and going on dates, getting a few free tickets here and there really isn't compensation for all my time and effort, and obviously isn't the reason I do the work.
I was surprised that she used my quotes for the article when she could have spoken with much more experienced bloggers who would have most likely had stronger opinions on the subject, as well as more experience with freebies. Oh and that is the worst picture ever, I look horrible!
Posted by: Linnea | June 28, 2005 at 12:42 AM
Hey Linnea. I actually think the article was pretty good. Besides the fact that she misquoted Sooz to support her point, the story was pretty well written.
Of course, I think that there is a very small minority of bloggers that accept money for mentions, I don't think there is anything wrong with it. I don't do it without disclosing. But, I don't think that there needs to be a wall between editorial and advertisements. With the net, there are all kinds of filters that filter the crap from the good. Editing happens on a distributed basis when other bloggers link and exalt or deride. There are so many opinions and people get to make up their own minds.
Posted by: peter caputa | June 28, 2005 at 07:56 AM
I suppose, I just think it would have been interesting to hear from someone who doesn't think that advertising on blogs is the way to go, or feels that bloggers may be leading readers on by not disclosing about freebies. I also think that it would have been great to hear from a company that actually employed this method, at least once, to see what the results were. I just like to hear different perspectives, I think it makes a more informative article, but I'm sure the author only had a certain story length to work with, plus a deadline, which is another advantage of blogging.
Posted by: Linnea | June 28, 2005 at 10:32 AM
I actually did supply her with numbers from a real company: Mine. She chose not to use them. As a result of recruiting bloggers to blog about an event, more tickets were sold. Approximately, 15 ticket sales were attributed to bloggers. (more here) It wasn't a huge number, but it worked, nonetheless. Also, the article intimates that the USWeb campaign for the online flower retailer resulted in more sales.
I also think the point of the story was this, "feels that bloggers may be leading readers on by not disclosing about freebies." The Bostonist made it pretty clear that this is what they told her. It would have been good to quote that. I also believe that a bunch of other people I referred her to would have said the same thing.
The story was well written overall. Fortunately, we all have a mouthpiece, so we can continue the conversation. There are actually quite a few bloggers that have commented on the story.
Posted by: Peter Caputa | June 28, 2005 at 10:42 AM