Zacht Ei - Majority of Dutch bloggers do not practice journalism

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Majority of Dutch bloggers do not practice journalism

That, at least, is one of the conclusions of my MA thesis 'The Fifth Estate - On the Journalistic Aspects of the Dutch Blogosphere'. The summary can be read by clicking 'More'. If you want a Dutch article, it can be found on PMM Blognoot.

And yes, the entire thesis is in English.

Summary of findings.

The number of blogs, websites which publish information in a diary-like format, in the Netherlands has sprung from zero to, according to some estimates, well over a million in only a few years time. This rise has initiated intense debates about the question whether or not blogs are practicing a form of journalism.

This thesis concerns itself with trying to find an answer to the following question: â€˜Do Dutch bloggers aspire to adhere, and perceive themselves to be adhering, to journalistic values and practices when they write for their blogs?â€™

After first offering definitions of both blogs and journalism, this thesis then describes the development of a method to assess whether a blog practices journalism. This method also takes into account the journalistic ideals of the blogger.

The method was subsequently used in a survey that many Dutch broadsheets and blogs devoted articles to. In the end, 379 blogs took part, of which 292 blogs entered complete survey forms.

This thesis finds that Dutch blogs overwhelmingly do not practice journalism, nor do Dutch bloggers indicate their desire to do so. The percentage of Dutch blogs that practices journalism varies between 0.3 and 17.5 percent, dependant on which of several suggested interpretations is used.

When the latter group of 17.5 percent is compared to the average blog that took part in the survey, it is shown that journalistic blogs differ on nearly all accounts: they tend to be higher educated, tend to make more avail of technical blog functionalities, and tend to use a wider variety of media types such as illustrations, audio and video in their content.

Nevertheless, even the highest percentage is lower than the percentage that was found by recent research into the journalistic aspects of blogs in the United States. The thesis offers suggestions why these differences may exist, as well as possible avenues for further research which comprise both a further refinement of the survey method and a transnational comparative study into the journalistic aspects of blogs

16:06

permalink comment(s) (1) trackback(s) (0)

Five years later

Gifts for twits

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry

Arjan, I bumped into your blog before via google, was looking for something, and today I bumped into your blog again, and again via google looking for information on Dutch bloggers. Oorsponkelijk ben ik geen Nederlander, maar nu wel. Ik woon nu al 4 jaar in Nederland, spreek de taal (op het zakelijk niveau is mijn wens), ken de mensen en de maatschappij, enzovoort... nou even schakelen in het engels...

Before anything else, I find your blog interesting and relevant to some of my interests.

I scanned through your thesis and I find the different types of “content blogs” quite amusing as I can perhaps identify myself to a number of them.

Having or maintaining a blog, which is probably a more fitted term because anyone can anyway create a blog in minutes but maintaining it would be an all different discussion, and reading blogs, in a recent survey (I work for an ict international research bedrijf – not as a researcher though) are mainly done by the (a) younger generation and (b) higher income brackets. Although this is an international survey, the results do resemble with your Dutch bloggers market thesis findings, albeit, you did not include blog readers.

As to journalism, I personally think the struggle to distinguish bloggers as the newly raved online journalists will continue. It is just so because journalists also have to protect themselves. I knew of a bitter writer who looks down on bloggers that write journalistic topics. I can in some ways understand as bitter writer’s perspective and standards are based on degree, experience and credentials earned, whereas, bloggers like everyone else do not have those and can easily publish their own opinion, be read and rally a following --- this of course if you are really that talented.

In addition, bloggers blogging about journalistic topics (I do this from time to time), I agree will depend first on their educational background, and of course, their interests, their line of work-business, if they are comfortable with writing (many highly educated individuals too do not like to write but like to read), privacy (some do not even like to be anoniem), and of course, if they are paid to do it. I’ve investigated a number of blog networks that pay bloggers to discuss a topic, but realized that the amount of effort put into it is not really worthwhile looking at the money earned – but they can be a real good part time alternative to highly-educated stay at home mothers, students, and even the ones sitting on their butts on uitkering!

Anyway, so much has been said and in fact there is more to be said. I will keep your blog in my list and will visit from time to time.

Dutched Pinay (ip:84.245.35.58) 12 October 2006 - 15:27 uur

Comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(By submitting comments you agree to have read and accepted the forum rules. If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Doorbakken kan altijd nog

Majority of Dutch bloggers do not practice journalism

Trackback Pings

Comment

Wat deed ik recent?