Bloggers Now Eligible For Press Passes In NYC 95
RobotRunAmok writes "The New York City Police Department announced Tuesday that bloggers and others who publish on the Web will now be eligible for press credentials. The move comes as a result of a lawsuit filed in 2008 by three Web journalists who were denied press passes. In New York, journalists with press passes are typically allowed to cross police barricades at public events. 'Events that will qualify include city-sponsored activity — like a press conference or parade — as well as emergencies where the city has set up do-not-cross lines. The proposal also allows inexperienced journalists to obtain single-use press passes. Longtime civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel, who represented the journalists who sued, says the city will now decide who a journalist is by looking at the type of work they do, and not the organization they write for.'"
Which (Score:4, Interesting)
... has made the press pass obsolete.
Start with the journalists who were laid off... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is starting to become the new form of journalism. The "big guys" like TV and radio owners are starting to lay off their full time staff, and replacing them with people who can report, record, and edit their own pieces who get paid by the number of reports they generate that make air.
To the average news viewer, this is almost transparent... so the standard shouldn't be "I work for CNN," but "CNN uses my iReports regularly."
I write for Slashdot (Score:5, Interesting)
I post opinions, rumors, announcements, and other "media-like" information right here on this very site in the form of comments. Unfortunately, because I don't submit stories, enter journals, or edit summaries (I don't think the /. editors do either) I am not considered a journalist.
Despite the time and effort I put into making sure my posts are factual, interesting, engaging, inciteful, and sometimes funny, my work (and I don't hesitate to call it work) here as a active contributor to the discussions surrounding each story is like dust in the wind, dude.
Re:great, thanks a lot (Score:4, Interesting)
Let's add an apprenticeship rule... let people who have a press pass bring in an intern/trainee so they can learn the job. Either that, or have people write about police events without the pass, and then one day when they walk up to the line hand them their pass.
Re:I write for Slashdot (Score:4, Interesting)
It is not a word, but it should be.
Re:Mixed feelings. (Score:1, Interesting)
I've never liked the idea of press passes, because they perpetuate the idea that there is some elite class of people called "the press", and that "freedom of the press" applies just to them. But freedom of the press, just like freedom of speech, is a right everyone has--and always was.
If you want to make special arrangements with certain groups and individuals to grant them access to your private property for reporting purposes, that's your business. But I don't like the idea that certain people be given exclusive access to government events because they have more freedom to write and report than the rest of us.
Not Unreasonable (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the sports blogs that I regularly read, which will remain unmentioned for fear of the Slashdot effect, actually convinced the NFL to give him a press pass to the NFL Scouting Combine. Since I started reading his blog in '08, the writer has ingratiated himself with the local* beat guys, get an article published in the New York Times, and built a rapport with members of the national sports media and NFL Players. When it counts, he puts in just as much work as the beat writers and his analysis is often a step ahead of theirs, even with less access. I have absolutely no problem with giving him a press pass.
Nate Silver, from fivethirtyeight.com, also provides excellent political commentary. His primary work is with polls, and we was able to correctly predict 49 of the 50 states in the 2008 presidential election. He has also contributed to ESPN, Slate, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and the New York Sun. Again, I hardly have an issue with him receiving a press pass.
As stated in the article, there are requirements in place for attaining a press pass. I'm sure this will be a work in progress, but opening up the news reporting mechanism in this country can hardly be a bad thing.
*He lives in New York, but covers the Green Bay(Wisconsin) Packers. He gets regular commentary from writers in Green Bay and Milwaukee, the two largest markets that cover the team.
Re:I write for Slashdot (Score:3, Interesting)
So? If someone was willing to pay you to do it, would something change?
That's all "journalism" is. People mystify this crap like it's some kind of secret fraternity, with secret rules.
Here's how it works. First, you write/video a bunch of shit.
Then you go to a media outlet, and say, "Here is my shit. If you like it, I can produce shit like this for you."
If they like it they say, "We like your shit. Go out and produce shit RIGHT NOW, so we can see what your shit looks like when you don't have time to prepare." If they like the shit you produce under pressure, you'll be hired and be an official journalist.
That's it. That's the whole thing. Now, to work for some big outlet, they'll expect you to have worked somewhere smaller and produced good shit while you worked there. But that's about the only barrier to entry. I know a guy who went from a paper that had circulation smaller than my college paper to one of the top 5 papers in the country in less than 5 years, all because people liked his shit.