I think that the idea of Freedom of Press within the blogging world is a major issue. It is rather confusing to distinguish between a journalist and a blogger because many people feel that they do the same thing. They both intend to inform an audience and they both work for the people. Because these two groups hold the same intentions, it seems as though they should be afforded the same rights. These rights include the Shield Law, which prevents journalists from being obligated to reveal their sources, as well as a type of freedom from government interference.
Is it fair for bloggers to be on the outside of these benefits? I personally feel that it isn't. It seems to me that bloggers should be afforded the same rights as journalists because overall they must have a passion for spreading information. If you contrast a blogger with a journalist you can see that one is driven by a paycheck, while the other is driven by their intense desire to inform/entertain. It seems that the power is shifting and that people are now more open to the information presented in blogs than information presented by big news corporations. The fact that advertising is entering the arena of blogging is somewhat causing its reputation to be tarnished, however, not as much as the reputation of big journalism corporations.
In terms of applying Freedom of the Press to my future occupation of sports journalism, I would attempt to enforce the importance of blogging within the realms of sports. If I were to not be afforded a job within a major news corporation such as ESPN, I would attempt to inform true sports fans about major controversies within the realm of sports. Such controversies to explain could be steroid use and even fraud among sports officials. I feel that having a blogger explain all of these controversies would be better for a sports audience because it means that as a blogger I can state facts without fear of being repremanded. Overall, this goes into the aspect of bloggers having more of a stake in facts and it also goes back to independence from faction.
People are more likely to trust bloggers on a variety of different topics because they don't have anything to lose, whereas, journalists could lose their jobs. I really think this major difference between these two types of "informers" is what makes it so important that bloggers are afforded Freedom of the Press. The job of protecting citizens and informing people about occurrences within society has shifted to bloggers, and because of that, they should have the rights that are afforded to journalists.
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