Who says blogging's not journalism? Engadget, influence and journalistic responsibility

This weeks events surrounding the beleaguered Engadget have made at least one thing crystal clear: the blogosphere really does have as much influence as we claim it does.

The last thing I'm going to do is criticise Engadget. One person and one person only is to blame for any financial fallout from the Apple memo, and that's the person who wrote it. Engadget's Ryan Block posted this eminently dignified response today and I believe that he went as far as any responsible journalist to verify the story.

And that's the key term, isn't it? "Journalist".

Not a week goes by without some comment appearing somewhere on Shiny Media claiming that we're hacks and that bloggers are not really journalists.

So what qualifies someone to be considered a journalist? It can't be degrees in journalism because many of our most esteemed and respected professionals existed long before that kind of degree did. Experience can occasionally be a deciding factor, but then at what point do you graduate from trainee to "proper" journalist? Isn't that a bit arbitrary? Surely you are or you aren't one right from the start?

A search for "journalism" on Dictionary.com returned the following:

1. The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.
2. Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.
3. The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.
4. Newspapers and magazines.
5. An academic course training students in journalism.
6. Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal.

It also defined a "journalist" as:

1. a writer for newspapers and magazines
2. someone who keeps a diary or journal

So, given that our jobs here are to report, write, edit, photograph and film news, launches and events, and that we get paid to keep a daily public diary (which is, after all, what a "weblog" started as, right?), we're journalists. Yes, there's a heavy traditional slant on "newspapers and magazines" but I'm betting you don't have subscriptions to as many of those as you do RSS feeds. And despite the long-standing arrogance about how journalists have "little attempt at analysis or interpretation", it's quite clear that the influence exerted by everything from conversational gadget blogging, reviews and features to incisive political journalism suggests otherwise.

I do think that jealousy is a part of what drives the negativity; until a few weeks ago, I was one of those people, raging that anyone could be lucky enough to be paid to write and report... and then I was. Although to be fair, even while I was spitting nails at my own non-journalist status, I didn't deny the right of the blogger to call themselves a journalist just because I wasn't one. And yet even after I got the job I started having negative thoughts myself, thinking "what if these people are right? This job is so amazingly enjoyable so it can't possibly be legitimate, right?"

Wrong. We are paid to learn about products, evaluate them and write about them. We sit in an office every day, planning and editing stories to keep people informed and entertained. Whenever nastiness, bitterness or the print / television media descend on bloggers and accuse them of inexperience and unprofessionalism, I remember this.

Engadget proved in their response to yesterday's crisis that not only are they consummate professionals, they are influential journalists too. And for that I support and thank them; in the end, even after an incident like this, we're only as good as we make each other look.

Alex Roumbas is Deputy Editor of Shiny Shiny and she loves her job. You can leave your rude comments now and she will laugh at them from the best office in the world.