Journalists, objectivity and the blogosphere

How much freedom should mainstream journalists who blog outside their news organisations have in expressing their opinions? A Wired piece looks at this question, taking the policies of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times as examples.

All major news organisations, The Age included, aim to protect the independence and credibility of their publications through strictly enforcing codes of conduct. But blogging is by nature an opinion driven form.

Within the right, transparent kind of framework, why shouldn't reporters be allowed, even encouraged to write about their views on a range of subject? It comes back to that trust question again.

British journalism is grappling with the issue in the wider context of media generally.

Jay Rosen has an extended piece on PressThink titled "Bloggers vs. journalists is over", argues that the debate has been overtaken by events.

"The question now isn't whether blogs can be journalism. They can be, sometimes. It isn't whether bloggers 'are' journalists. They apparently are, sometimes. We have to ask different questions now because events have moved the story forward. By 'events' I mean things on the surface we can see, like the tsunami story, and things underneath that we have yet to discern."