I used to blog about open source for ZDNet before taking the full-time gig with Linux.com, and one of the things that alternately amused and concerned me was the comments that criticized ZDNet and myself for biased articles, when it was -- in my mind at least -- clear that what I was writing was a blog entry and opinion and therefore not subject to the same criteria that one would hold a news article to.
When I put the news hat on, I feel it's very necessary to do the news thing -- be unbiased, get all sides of the story, lots of research, etc. However, when I blog (like now, for anyone who might be wondering...) I don't feel it necessary to be unbiased or do ten hours of research to say "I think this is silly" in reference to another article or something.
I guess O'Reilly has had the same problem, as I noticed at the bottom of this blog entry:
Please note this is not an article. Rather, it is an opinion piece published on the MacDevCenter blog. Thanks for reading! — FJ
I'm not sure who, if anyone, is to blame here. I suppose it lies on both sides. On the one hand, publishers might expect readers to know the difference between an article -- when an author uses formal voice, quotes multiple sources, and so forth.
On the other hand, maybe publishers need to use additional visual cues to say this is commentary, not "news".
On the third hand (lots of hands going round here!) the lines are quite blurry already. Reporters write commentary, news, and "blogs" and when it's the same guy doing all of that, who can blame readers for being confused when they expect a person to deliver news and get commentary instead? Some publishers treat all content more or less the same -- it certainly is the same for ad sales purposes, right? Eyeballs are eyeballs, readers are readers -- and blogs have proven very effective at being cheap, easy to produce, and still profitable.
What do you think? Should blogs on news sites carry a disclaimer, or is it sufficient to separate blogs from the news portion of a site, or should they all be lumped together and held to the same standards?
6 Comments
It makes clear the difference between the two - blog and article - in a simple and practical way. I have noticed many people who write blogs do not actually know the difference and if by chance somebody comments upon they consider themselves a journalist whose write ups are not accepted or picked up by magazines and newspapers
This is nice but i dont know this is article or blog to difference between blogs and articles.
I think the difference between an article and a blog is: If I want to write a particluar content or information say about chicken recipes as a whole I think that should be called as an article while say if I want to write something I tried a new chicken recipe and how it went then it should be called as blog.
I don't consider myself novice or experienced. I'm in the middle. Therefore, this whole thing about ARTICLE or BLOG is senseless.
This is what I think about both:
There is one 1 thing in common in everyone and that is to "write". Wehter be a professional or informal writting it doesn't matter as long as each subject is seperated into CATEGORIES.
Therefore, wether you use a "blog" or "article" it's up to one to decide. I choose to use Article for all my writtings. After all, each of them has the same options as a blog: Comments, Reply, Posting, etc.
Finally, since I am somewhat inexperience on this issue I may be wrong, but the way I see it now it is confusing to know the 2 exists. So I choose to use 1 of them and make the best of it.
Thanks for reading!
I got the difference between one and the other Very clear, an article is supposed to be as objective as possible and with good and credible back up information that may support the article. While a may (doesn't have to) subjective, while also having supporting information that will back up the blogger's reason to have an opinion in particular.
I tend to regard a blog post as a formalized comment and typically only a few paragraphs, whereas an article is really more of an essay that would be longer and more formalized.