As I sit here and read news stories each day, I typically find myself coming across articles that discuss the debate on who is a journalist and who is not. And, as a journalist who writes for the so-called "mainstream tech media," the term is thrown around quite a bit. Unfortunately, I just don't understand why everyone cares so much.
Sometimes I'll write a story that expresses an opinion on a topic and readers will call this inflammatory. Even better, some readers will put quotation marks around the term 'journalist' to indicate that I'm not quite there, as if the term means something special. Am I a journalist? Sure, I think so. Of course, some may try to debate that fact because most of my work here on Digi Home is opinionated and for some odd reason, this idea of "objective journalism" has inched its way into the public psyche and created mass hysteria when a "journalist" shoots straight for once. In fact, most of my writing here on the Digital Home is something we call "subjective journalism" that you'll find in each and every major website, newspaper and magazine in the world.
Now, I do write features, product reviews and columns elsewhere and report on stories just as any other "objective" journalist does (objectively, I guess?) and I uphold the standards that's expected of us -- no ownership in companies being covered, never taking freebies, and so on. But alas, it's the subjective journalism that sustains me because, regardless of whether or not you agree, it stimulates conversation and helps create a dialog that fosters change. After all, isn't that the plight of the journalist?
And if you agree that subjective journalism is, in fact, journalism in its finest sense of the term, aren't any and all bloggers journalists as well? I certainly think so.… Read more
