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“While we recognize the importance and the rights of the private citizen who snaps a photo or video of an arrest, this site will only cover individuals who self
by tppiotrowski 6y ago
“While we recognize the importance and the rights of the private citizen who snaps a photo or video of an arrest, this site will only cover individuals who self-identify as journalists and have some track record of journalistic work.“
Looks like you’d have to produce some journalistic work in the past. Unclear if that’s a blog or having your worked printed in a major publication.
- nickff 6y agoIt's a completely circular definition (as far as I can see).
- Throwaway1771 6y agoDefining now from In the past? Don't think that's necessarily circular.
- phalangion 6y agoI think it's more of a "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck." If you call yourself a journalist and have a record of reporting on things, then by this definition you are one. But you can't decide you are a persecuted journalist because you got arrested.
- nickff 6y agoSure, but at some point you have to define how a duck walks and how it quacks!
- pdkl95 6y agoYou only have to define the behavior: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_typing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_typing A journalist is someone that does journalism, just like a runner is someone that runs. The behavior "doing journalism" is simply reporting on something to an audience.
- esyir 6y agoThen we're all journalists here for commenting to a global audience.
- hutzlibu 6y agoSure, but at some point, you have to start by defining "sure".
- malwarebytess 6y agoI've thought that there was nothing special about journalists such that you required a rigorous definition. Journalists shouldn't have more power than citizens, journalists are citizens that choose to exercise their civil rights to bring information to the public.
- pyronik19 6y agoAnd this is the reason why BLM where vests that say press but then those same people are attacking police. They want to abuse the special privileges the press get.
- joshuamorton 6y agoThe press doesn't get any special privileges. The law doesn't make a distinction between press and not press. Certain organizations may get special privileges (press passes), but there's nothing legally binding about them. S citizen journalist is still a journalist under the law.
- tines 6y agoHow’s that? Seems like it’s just saying “we’re not going to treat you like a journalist if you don’t claim to be one, and you can’t claim to be one without having done any work before.”
- nickff 6y ago>"this site will only cover individuals who self-identify as journalists and have some track record of journalistic work" They're saying that they use journalistic work as a standard of who's a journalist... that's circular.
- iNate2000 6y agoHow else would you define who is a journalist? How can one be a journalist without doing journalistic work? Are you looking for a definition of "journalism"?
- Bjartr 6y agoWhere "journalistic work" means "has published an article or video that at least purports to be reporting facts, or something equivalent to that". If you claim to be a journalist, but can't point to something you've published, then you're not included. If you claim to be a journalist, and can go "here's three articles I published in a local newspaper (for example)", then you're included.
- chrisseaton 6y agoSo how can you be a journalist in order to write your first articles if you're not allowed to be a journalist until you've written your first articles?
- joshuamorton 6y agoThe point is that this particular site, which reports on police violence against journalists, is being somewhat conservative in how they define journalist. That seems fine.
- giantrobot 6y agoIf I share something newsworthy on Twitter or YouTube, I shared something. I'm not a journalist. If I share something and add context and get perspectives other than my own I performed the work of a journalist. If I do this with some regularity I am a journalist, an amateur journalist but a journalist. One of the key points of journalism is sourcing. You'll notice professional journalists, even in the middle of a war zone or natural disaster, will do interviews and try to get a larger context of events. They do this even when they're literally in the middle of an event and documented it themselves. Anyone that went through journalism school is taught just because they see a thing it doesn't necessarily mean they know or understand what they saw. Their eye witness account is as unreliable as anyone else's so they not only admit to that fact but actively try to get other accounts to find all the common elements and context.