The Oregon Trail of Bloggers

Laws about journalists and privileges given to journalists have become increasingly murky with the use of the internet. Citizen journalism has become more prominent because of the internet, and allowing anyone the power to be a journalist has become a concern among government legislation.

Back in 2008 in Lake Oswego, Oregon, a blogger was asked to leave a City Council meeting because they were not a qualified journalist. Mark Bunster, who runs Loaded Orygun (a blog that was much more active at the time in question), identified as a journalist who published on a political blogging platform. At the time, however, the city did not have a formal policy on bloggers. This encounter with Bunster stirred controversy in Oregon about whether a policy should be in place, and it questioned the definition was of "journalist."

There is no concrete definition to this word and there is no concrete answer to "is a blogger a journalist?" It depends on the circumstances and depends on the quality of work produced by the blogger in question.

According to the American Press Institute, anyone can perform journalistic acts, but not everyone can be a journalist. At the end, it boils down to critical thinking and analysis: "The journalist places the public good above all else and uses certain methods – the foundation of which is a discipline of verification – to gather and assess what he or she finds." If a blogger goes out to a city council meeting with the intention of reporting to the public and to benefit the greater good, they are a journalist. If they attend a press conference merely to take some photos and listen in on important information without critically analyzing it, they are not a journalist.

Bloggers should not be automatically excluded from being called a journalist – their blog itself should be questioned first.