Who really is a journalist?

Videoletters article in Helsingin Sanomat
Originally uploaded by amsterboy.

I read today about an interesting research done by the Annenberg Public Policy Center on who is regarded as a journalist. A survey of 1,500 adults and 673 journalists (yes, most of them adults but you know what I mean) gave really interesting results. I recommend reading the press release but here are few notions:
- people generally mix hosts/news anchors and journalists
- 65 % of journalists thought that large corporate ownership has a negative impact on journalism
- 36 % (general public 48%) of the journalists thought that owners are usually more concerned with making profit than prividing the audience with factual news coverage
- 45 % of the journalists said that bloggers have a positive impact on journalism, 38 % saw it as negative
20 % of journalists read blogs daily (general public 10 %)

Hmm...I have had this identity problem often. I mean thinking whether I am a journalist or not because I get most of my income from other sources. But I still say rather often that I am a freelancer. And I do remember several bar discussions with fellow journalists about the way people regard talkshow hosts or quiz show hosts as journalism. There was an excellent quote once in a Finnish newspaper from a model-turned-quiz-show-host:"I had often thought of wanting to be a journalist. But I really, I have to call all these people before hand and read some kind of background material. That's so much work." Yep.

p.s. The article in the picture is one that I wrote recently for Helsingin Sanomat on Videoletters.