That’s me giving a lecture on blogging and journalism during WordCamp Philippines 2008 last September 6 at the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde in Manila. (Photo courtesy of Miss Wicked)

I don’t intend to repeat the “process documentation” made by more than 50 bloggers (go to JezhLau Concepts for a definitive list). Most of them wrote tongue in cheek which is quite understandable for their age.

Anyway, the purpose of this personal evaluation is to share the points raised by bloggers who attended my lecture titled “Blogging and Journalism in the Philippines: Journalistic Blogging for the People.” If you’re interested, by the way, please download my paper and slide presentation, both in PDF format.

During the lecture, I said that bloggers should adhere to acceptable professional and ethical standards in the writing and production of media content. There is much to learn from the responsible practice of the journalism profession, in much the same way that journalists can learn from the multimedia approach typical of blogs (and the new media for that matter) in disseminating information.

Since the blogosphere and the journalism profession are both part of the public domain, it is absolutely necessary for bloggers, just like journalists, to be accountable to their readers and to help shape public opinion through meaningful blog entries (i.e., posts and comments).

A participant correctly said that those who are irresponsible are usually the ones who generate a lot of Web traffic, much to the consternation of responsible ones who sometimes have very few  readers. He actually mentioned a particular blog which hogged the headlines in the recent past due to the blogger’s slanderous and scandalous remarks about his lover and some personalities in the alta sociedad.

But everyone agreed that we should all rethink our purpose of blogging: Is it to simply get attention or to shape public opinion? Is it to engage in shameless promotion or to provide relevant information? Is it mainly to monetize or primarily to conscienticize?

I think that the generation of Web traffic should be secondary to the main objective of providing relevant media content. Even prior to the ubiquity of blogging, web authors have adhered to the principle “content is king (pardon the sexist tone)” in the design and layout of websites. There is a need to reaffirm this principle, this time along the lines of upholding journalistic integrity in writing.

One does not have to be serious (activists sometimes call it GND or grim and determined) in approaching a topic. A blogger can opt to do a light and funny treatment of a pressing issue provided that he or she does not end up trivializing it. There is such a thing as “political satire,” and I’m sure you can identify bloggers (Filipino or otherwise) who do a good job at making you laugh while being enlightened.

Despite the limited time, I’d like to think that we were able to clarify that bloggers should not demand that journalists clean up their acts first before they are told to adhere to professional and ethical standards.

First, why should the quality of blogging be dependent on the quality of journalism that we have? Second, standards in journalism are used as bases for the simple reason that they are the oldest and most established in the three fields of mass media (the other two being advertising/public relations and entertainment). Please note that this is not a situation where journalists are imposing their will on the bloggers.

Blogging and journalism should be seen as complementary, not adversarial, to each other. The tension, I think, is borne out of the perception that adhering to standards is tantamount to censorship. Quite the contrary, standards are meant to make bloggers and journalists exercise responsibility in the freedom that they enjoy (although we have to recognize attempts of the powers-that-be to muzzle it).

Given the need to uphold self-regulation in the blogosphere, I suggested that WordCamp Philippines take the lead in recommending acceptable principles and standards in blogging based on existing bloggers’ codes of ethics like the one by CyberJournalist.net.

For those interested, I said that a blog monitoring website (the name “Pinoy BlogWatch” comes to mind) can be established to monitor specific blog entries, particularly coming from the popular and established blogs. The monitoring shall be based on clear principles and standards of responsible blogging, adherence to which can be shown by installing badges/widgets or writing disclosures.

I think the best way to end this blog is to repeat what had been posted by several bloggers who were at WordCamp: Congratulations to the Mindanao Bloggers (especially to Blogie Robillo and Migs Hipolito) for a job well done!

Updates (September 9 to October 2, various times): Thank you to the following bloggers who wrote about the “Blogging and Journalism” session at WordCamp:

1. WordCamp Breakaway Sessions by Aja Lapus
2. WordCamp, Meeting Matt Mullenweg by Miss Wicked
3. wordcamp 2008: notes by onyxx
4. Wordcamp 2008: for healthy & wealthy blogging by hitokirihoshi
5. what i learned today during wordcamp by Jam Sisante (Note: She was my student at UP CMC.)
6. On WordCamp 2008 and Meeting Mr. WordPress by Lexie Tolentino
7. Rockin’ @ WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Salve Canale
8. wordcamp philippines 2008: on meeting mr. wordpress, web standards and other stuff by Shari Cruz (Note: She did not attend my session but she had something to say about it.)
9. Pulis, niloko ng tanga! by Pedro Montoya
10. I WAS WORDCAMPED by Tannix
11. A Goodie from Japan + some WordCamp Philippines afterthoughts by hazy
12. Wordcamp….. I was there! by joycerica
13. Responsible Blogging and Us by Sherma E. Benosa
14. WordCamp Philippines 2008: On Being a Remarkable Responsible Blogger by usagijen
15. Prof. Danilo Arao, Hinamon ang mga Blogger sa WordCamp 2008 by Shen (Note: Shen’s new project, Pinoy Blog Movement for Change and Action, is worth visiting in the days to come.)
16. Wordcamped! by mnel
17. Sa iyo na mapaghanap by Jeck
18. I was at WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Aileen Estoquia (Note: She neither attended nor mentioned the “Blogging and Journalism” session, but I included her post for two reasons: She writes well and I can’t say no to a former student.)
19. I Was There!!!: Wordcamp Philippines 2008 by Street sign
20. Welcome back to loooooong hiatus by Sanyata (Note: This is a photo documentation of what transpired.)
21. WordCamp Firsts by Dave Quitoriano (Note: He uploaded a photo of me together with him, DLS-CSB SMIT Dean Benhur Ong, Blogie Robillo, Matt Mullenweg and Paul Pajo.)

Please leave a comment if I had left anything out. I only used Google Blog Search (Beta) in tracking recent backlinks to Rising Sun and other relevant SERPs. Thank you for reading.