2010 Winter Olympics athletes get restricted blogging go-ahead
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is gradually coming round to the idea that people are going to blog about each summer and winter Olympic Games regardless of what rules they put in place.
The latest development is that the IOC will allow athletes blogs at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.
However, there are still likely to be a number of restrictions, not least because of the definition of “blogging” versus “journalism”.
“The IOC considers blogging, in accordance with these guidelines, as a legitimate form of personal expression and not as a form of journalism,” according to the new guidelines.
Furthermore, a member of the IOC, Bob Condron, said, “There are certain things you can’t do because you’re infringing on what the journalists can’t do inside the ropes. You can’t be covering news, because that takes the role of a journalist and is not what anyone had in mind.”
Other restrictions placed upon athletes who blog are really offshoots from the general ethos of the Olympic Games, such as strict control over what advertising is allowed on the blogs.
The rules ensure that only accredited media get the multimedia spoils, and new media advocates will likely cry at the archaic demands of the IOC. Still, that’s the way it’s going to be for now. Maybe there’ll be more openness in time for London 2012, though I’m not convinced. The sprinters may run fast, but the IOC certainly doesn’t.
Thank you Andy for that ….”bloggers” personal view point of a “journalistic” newsworthy note.
The internet, in general, is full of adverse diversity, of facts and fiction, isn’t it?
Hmmm, is Glenn Beck, commentating as FOX News, or is he commentating more as a FOX News blogger? Really can be a slippery slope for some of us non-news writers. And where is that line drawn anyways?
Is it black & white, or IS IT gray/grey?
I don’t know who to believe, what’s news, and what’s the difference between a news anchor and a news commentator and a journalist?
If I’m writing a journal, and it’s from my perspective, am I just a writer, or am I a “journalist”? What is a journal? What is journaling?
Sorry for the questions Andy, I know that you’re simply delivering the news. Now that brings another question to mind, are you a news reporter, or are you a news delivery person? And would that make a newspaper delivery “person” a “reporter”?
Ah, it’s all rhetorical and in the “eye” of the beholder, isn’t it?