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Opening Arguments

News is what we say it is

We have an interesting conversation going on in the Fort Wayne blogosphere about what news is and who "real" journalists are. It started when Nathan Gotsch wrote on his Fort Wayne Observed blog about a swinger's club in Fort Wayne. I did a post remarking that this was evidence of the evolution of blogs, from mostly expressing opinions and engaging in media criticism, to doing more original reporting. Things took off from there. (Wrapup here.)

That led Nathan to ask his readers if he should be considered a journalist, and people are offering opinions on that idea.

There's a truism in the newspaper business that "news is whatever an editor says it is." That's not as arrogant as it sounds. There are millions and millions of pieces of information out there, and none of it becomes news until it goes through some gatekeeper's filter. There are millions of people doing their own filtering now, deciding what is "news" for them and publishing it on their blogs. We have a world now in which those who still want to can rely on a handful of gatekeepers. But those who choose to can be their own gatekeepers. It's all part of the same communications revolution that is both exciting and terrifying, as most revolutions are.

Posted in: Our town, Weblogs
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