If You’re A Blogger, You Don’t Care About Your Audience, Right?

By Dan Smith

Last week, a piece was published on the BBC website that explained both Oracle and Google have been told they must provide details of all bloggers they have rewarded financially (in relation to their on-going law suit).

Although I’ve got my own thoughts on this situation as a whole, I’m writing today’s post around something a source said within the piece.

At the very end of the article, Tim Luckhurst, professor of Journalism at the University of Kent is quoted as saying “Journalists are professionals who understand their obligation to their listeners and viewers — not the interested parties about which they are writing. Many bloggers ignore that distinction.”

And this annoyed me. Massively.

To me, Luckhurst is saying that bloggers aren’t professionals. He’s saying that they don’t understand their obligation to listeners and viewers. In my opinion, he’s not only saying that there is a huge gap between bloggers and journalists, but he’s saying bloggers are slightly less ethical than journalists and will write about whatever they need to if someone throws them a couple of coins.

So this got me annoyed and I could write a full piece ranting about it (if not just about the number of corrupt newspapers / journalists out there), but after a few days to cool off, I re-read the piece and started to question Luckhurst’s views — and my own.

When I’ve got my ‘writing hat’ on, I consider myself to be a writer. Not a blogger, a journalist, an article writer, a commercial writer or an author. A writer. Yes, I’m aware of the differences between most types of writing, but I would argue strongly that whether you’re writing for The New York Times or you’re drafting articles for a small SEO agency, you’ve got a joint interest — your audience.

I thought this was a view most people — or at least most writers — shared. According to Luckhurst, this isn’t the case.

And this made me question myself.

Am I a writer? I write a lot of blog post content, so should that make me a blogger? I do write the occasional press release, though, so should I consider myself more of a commercial writer? Ah, but what about those pitches I’m discussing with magazine editors. Does this make me more of a journalist?

Trying to pigeonhole myself for a while, I realised again that irrelevant of whatever I’m writing, I’m always doing so in a professional frame of mind. I’m writing a press release for the agency I work with, so I’m thinking about their interests. I’m thinking about what the audience reaction to the news will be. I’m trying to second-guess what the comments are going to be and where we need to position ourselves to get the most benefit possible.

Then I’m writing a blog post. They might seem simpler on the surface, but I actually consider them to be more difficult to write. You’re trying to get that balance right between talking to an individual and talking to an audience. You don’t want to be too conversational on a business blog, but you don’t want to be too formal. You want to promote your products or services, but you don’t want to do it so blatantly that you alienate your audience.

And for me, it all boils down to having a professional and thoughtful approach alongside continually having an eye on your audience’s behaviour.

Maybe I’m reading too much into Luckhurst’s comment. Sure, there are plenty of bloggers out there who don’t think about their obligation to their readers — but actually, there are just as many who do. In fact, as blogging continues to pick up pace in a commercial environment, I’d say there are now more bloggers than ever who realise their obligation to their readers.