Blogging at the Olympics in Beijing
One small step for athletes, one giant leap for bloggers. That's what I thought upon reading about the IOC's decision to allow athletes to blog at the Beijing Olympics. Here's the rationale in the IOC's own words - "The IOC considers blogging...as a legitimate form of personal expression and not a form of journalism," the IOC said. However, they don't allow audio or video blogging and references to third parties is prohibited. Apparently, the IOC is eager to protect rights holders as Games broadcasting contracts are worth several billion euros.What's most interesting is how the IOC has separated blogging from journalism. The truth is that those lines have long since blurred. With prominent bloggers getting media credentials at conferences and them breaking stories as quickly and professionally as the mainstream press, they are very much bloggers today. And athletes blogging? If they're blogging authentically and have something to say, I would treat them as journalists too. I wonder what the Chinese government thinks of that.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Blogging at the Olympics in Beijing.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.goingsocialnow.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/1780
Leave a comment