Today over lunch I got embroiled in a spirited debate with a professional journalist friend of mine. The topic? Are bloggers truly journalists? As you might imagine, I stuck up for the bloggers maintaining that we're as entitled to the distinction as the next guy. My argument went something like this:
A "journalist" is little more than an observer who records and promulgates his/her observations. This is an essentially human act, not some skill unique only to a certain type of human with a certain type of training. When someone is called a "journalist" it means little more than they have the luxury of devoting 40+ hours a week to doing what the rest of us are forced to do only in our spare time and with fewer resources.
To illustrate my point, I juxtaposed the "journalist" with the "musician." I specifically invoked Yo-Yo Ma because his stirring performance at President Obama's inauguration was still fresh in my memory. I waxed on and on about Yo-Yo's innate talent and decades of training and experience and how his title of "musician" encompassed all of this. It was not a mere signifier of his liveliehood, but an acknowledgement of his special skill. Everyone has the "skill" of a "journalist." Few among us have the skill of Yo-Yo Ma.
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2009.