Blog this

COMMENT: THE Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance says it draws the line on social media bloggers who purport to be sources of ‘news’ in the community.
“We have received a number of membership applications from bloggers in recent times,” a spokesman for the body representing professional journalists in Australia told StreetWise in response to criticisms local newspapers contained little local content.
“We have introduced a strict vetting process that ensures people who are not journalists don’t get membership just because they want a free pass.”
The MEAA says with the rise of social media blogging, the policy weeds out content providers who claim to be journalists or sources of local news, including the highly biased blogs, Fremantle Shipping News and Freo’s View.
FSN claims to be a ‘volunteer-run organisation’ that accepts donations from the public to produce posts at the ‘heart of Freo’. But what started as a shipping news site has become a political space run by retired judge Michael Barker.
He has attacked Seven West Media of producing little content in its rebranded PerthNow Fremantle (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/freo-ship-blog-shames-seven-media). According to FSN, unless it has a Freo connection, it is not worth reading. Presumably, this includes the front page covering Cleo’s rescue in the latest issue of PerthNow Fremantle.
When ‘reporting’ on Local Government Minister John Carey’s council reforms released on November 10, both blogs simply cut and paste and regurgitated the minister’s media release in full. That’s not journalism. That’s laziness. No analysis, comment or challenge.
A journalist would contact the minister’s office, a department of local government spokesman or WALGA and follow up with questions designed to give readers a more informative reaction to the proposed reforms than just a rehash of a government media release.
A week earlier, FSN published a short post on the closure of George Street Quarters. Rather than provide details of why it closed, the self-proclaimed news ‘service’ states: “And we hear murmurs a new restaurant serving breakfast, lunches and dinners is about to arrive. We do hope so.” Hope? Murmurs? How about picking up the phone and finding out. That’s what readers deserve, particularly if they are donating coin to the blog spot.
Again, this is not journalism, just lazy blogging. As one WA newspaper editor aptly put it: “Bloggers are vanity publishers who confuse popularity with credibility.”

What is your profession?

StreetWise contacted several journalists in WA who said FSN’s attack on SWM and its follow-up post on what is journalism are simplistic and elitist. Most criticised the latter post in which FSN asks Murdoch University academic Chris Smyth to ponder the ‘raging’ debate. What debate? Where?
Dr Smyth said, “journalists have no exclusive right to the practice. Anyone can do it. No licence. No training required. Grab your smart phone and publish stuff”.
“What rubbish!” a retired Fremantle journalist told StreetWise. “So I change a light bulb, does that make me an electrician? I go to Bunnings and get some bits to fix a leaky tap, does that make me a plumber? Some ointment and a bandage on a wound? A doctor? I think not.
“Training is involved for all professions. Blogging and social media commentary, shopping puff pieces, real estate writing etc are not journalism. They are what they are; blogs, comment, puff, advertorials.”
They added: “I’m sure Barker wouldn’t want people calling themselves lawyers just because they sometimes do their own defence.”
Dr Smyth told StreetWise he had not read the latest FSN post: “If you get the facts right, declare where you got them from and say who you are, it doesn’t matter whether you have a degree if you’re producing a piece of journalism.”
Journalists with a degree(s) disagree: “Anyone can write a story on something that’s happened, but it takes skill to find out all of the six Ws: what, where, when, why, how and for whom.
“Then there’s the public interest test that a lot of so-called journalists don’t understand, i.e. will it correct a significant wrong? Will it bring to light information affecting the community’s well-being and safety? Will it improve community understanding of and participation in debate about an important current issue? And will it lead to greater accountability and transparency in public life?”
But not if you’re biased. FSN is clearly council friendly, its posts (dressed up as news) dominated by feelgood politics and post-election kumbaya headlines such as “Love is in the air – An ‘ode to Hannah’”. And ships.
Dr Smyth said the point he hoped to get across was that blogging is just a method, a mode of conveying information: “To be a blogger doesn’t mean you are one thing or the other, you have to make that assessment as to whether it is real, whether it is verified. There are bloggers who can win a Pulitzer or blow smoke out their proverbial.”
He added: “A lot of people are blogging and a lot are not even blogging about real things. They just make it up. Some are not independent and lack transparency. That doesn’t pass the test.”
Journalism is a profession, commitment and ‘curse’. Students of the craft spend years at university studying law and ethics, reporting, recording, filming, editing, interviewing and building networks of contacts across government, industry and, importantly, in the community.
Before this author graduated from Curtin and entered the industry in the mid-1980s, many journalists working in Perth were either ‘naturals’ or bright high school graduates employers preferred to train in-house. At The West Australian, ‘cadets’ were not allowed in the newsroom unless they had achieved shorthand speeds of 120 words a minute.
Once in the ‘mainstream’, it was Miyagi’s Law, ‘wax on, wax off’, sometimes for up to five to 10 years recording and reporting daily weather statistics (their accuracy vital to farmers across WA); sports results; budget breakdowns, to name just a few.
Apart from the naturals, most young journalists develop a good ‘news sense’ after years of practise, research and experience. Journalists also reject freebies, gifts and payoffs, plagiarism and commercial and political influences.
They protect the vulnerable in the community, respect grief and privacy and correct errors.

The Code

UNDER the code of ethics, ‘respect for truth and the public’s right to information’ is paramount. News reporting must be fair and accurate, informative, topical and even entertaining.
Bloggers lack the tools and experience when it comes to the independent verification of facts, data and information. Alternatively, weblogs contribute to the news gathering process. So do e-mails, twitter, instagram and community online sites.
According to US journalist Paul Andrews: “Calling a typical blogger a journalist is like calling anyone who takes a snapshot a photographer.”
Parochialism, or narrow mindedness, features highly on sites such as FSN and Freo’s View, the latter having publicly criticised StreetWise for a lack of local content when it ran a feature on Cossack in WA’s Pilbara. One-eyed View failed to realise (read) the subject of the story was from Fremantle.
As StreetWise has reported previously at www.streetwisemedia.com.au/opinion-bloggers-vs-journalism-part-1, such blogs are informal pages or sites run by individuals or groups sharing views and opinions on a variety of subjects, film, arts, politics, sporting feats, upcoming events and other community announcements.
The ethical pursuit of news, now more than ever, demands and deserves factual, informative and unbiased content devoid of personal attacks and prejudices. The challenge for readers is recognising the difference between opinionated blogs and journalistic content (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/potty-posts-and-social-kettles-part-2).
StreetWise Media, whose editor has worked as a journalist in WA for more than 30 years, adheres to the MEAA Code of Ethics: “Respect for truth and the public’s right to information … Journalists search, disclose, record, question, entertain and comment. They scrutinise power, and exercise it with honesty, fairness, independence and respect.”
Importantly, as a fiercely independent publication launched in Fremantle in 2015, StreetWise provides, among other things, a crucial counterpoint to the politically and ideologically-driven ‘news’ content pushed and promoted online by sites including FSN and Freo’s View.
Unbiased, accurate and informative content at streetwisemedia.com.au.