Abstract
This study aims to arrive at a contextualized understanding of the perspectives of a small group of Hong Kong journalist bloggers regarding a wide range of media issues. In addition to analyzing how they interpret news values in post-1997 Hong Kong, it also discusses how j-blogs can facilitate a new form of ‘interpretive community’.
Together with in-depth interviews with eight journalist bloggers, this study analyzes 1044 blog posts written by them over a period of two years. Findings show how journalist bloggers narrated their personal and work lives, and identified recurring themes from these j-blogs. It argues that journalist bloggers have used blogs to make sense of their journalistic lives and professional ideology. Despite a lack of active interactions, j-blogs have cultivated a space for journalists to share narratives that are deemed to be important to their personal and professional lives. In this regard, journalist blogs are facilitating a new form of interpretive community. Within this community, journalists are able to deliberate core news values in the Hong Kong context.
Introduction
In an era when the world is experiencing waves of change in the information society, traditional journalism is undergoing rapid transformation in the midst of new media developments. While there are high hopes that practices like citizen journalism, participatory journalism and community media will contribute to the renewal of a public sphere (Jankowski, 2002), skeptics question the legitimacy and credibility of the news from such sources (Dahlgren, 2005; Tambini, 1999; Winograd and Hais, 2008).
Blogging, in particular, has sparked off debates about its relationship with and impact on traditional journalism. Weblogs are websites on which posts are organized in reverse chronological order. Blogging is therefore a cumulative process in which a blogger shares his or her thoughts, feelings and opinions (Dvorak, 2006; Kim, 2005; Rettberg, 2008). The format of the blog has changed the nature of information (Andrews, 2001), and questions abound whether blogging is a form of journalism (Andrews, 2003), whether bloggers are journalists (Hempei, 2005) and how blogging and journalism are connected (Blood, 2003). In a content analysis study which covered US news coverage on blogging from 1999 to 2005, Jones and Himelboim (2010) found that blogging was framed to be a threat in the realm of journalism, and blogs were hardly considered to be a form of journalism. This finding suggested that the relationships between blogging and journalism could be rather tense.
Interestingly, increasing numbers of professional journalists are participating in the blogosphere. Their blogs have come to be known as j-blogs. Further distinctions can be made between j-blogs published by news sites, those published by independent journalists and those that appear on the personal websites of journalists. The first type of j-blogs are official in nature, and hence generate less controversy. The more individualistic and personalized j-blogs, however, have spawned debate about conflict of interest, the amount and quality of information disclosed, and other ethical considerations.
Central to the issue is the notion of professionalism. Given that blogs are more personalized and opinionated forms of communication, they are seen to contradict the golden rules of journalism: accuracy, fairness and objectivity (Lowrey, 2006). Their neutrality is contested (by, for example, Thorsen, 2008). The ‘cult of personality’ in blogs also challenges the anonymous nature of news, and hence risks detracting from traditional journalistic standards (Thurman, 2008). However, authors including Lasica (2002), Rosen (2005) and Robinson (2006) assert that j-blogs provide an outlet for alternative voices and serve as a ‘revoicing’ tool in journalism. Going further, Wall (2004) sees blogs as ‘black market journalism’, which opens up possibilities for challenging the dominant mainstream model. McKinnon (2008) confirmed the special roles of bridge blogs hosted by Chinese journalists amongst foreign correspondents in China, which she saw as a challenge to global information order.
This study proposes to move beyond the above debates and argues that j-blogs offer a rare opportunity for researchers to examine the various internal struggles and external negotiations that journalists face in an unobtrusive manner. Seeing journalist bloggers as ‘interpretive communities’ (Zelizer, 1993), this article discusses how a small group of Hong Kong journalists make sense of their everyday work, and what common modes of interpretation of their social world are being employed here (Berkowitz and TerKeurst, 1999).
Journalism in post-1997 Hong Kong
It has been 14 years since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Although it is guaranteed that under the ‘one country, two systems’ policy, Hong Kong will remain unchanged for 50 years from the return, changes are inevitable. People in Hong Kong need to negotiate a new national identity (Ma and Fung, 2007) and to familiarize themselves with new narratives to make sense of the various changes in this ‘new’ society (see, for example, Ku, 2001). As Chan and Lee aptly pointed out in the early 1990s, ‘Hong Kong is a unique living laboratory’ (1991: vii). The authors believe that the Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984, set Hong Kong’s political transition in motion. Taking a broader historical perspective, the transition project is not yet complete.
In the field of journalism and media, Fung (2007) observed that the diversity of media content has declined since the handover. He attributed this decline to changes in media ownership and self-censorship. Both terms are frequently mentioned whenever the state of press freedom in Hong Kong comes to the fore, and there are solid grounds for concern. As Lee and Chan (2008) noted, more news media are now owned by local or foreign media tycoons who have strong business interests in China. Such ties may lead media organizations to censor news and stories that are likely to antagonize the Beijing power center. Although this kind of self-censorship is by no means unique to Hong Kong (Price, 2006), the case of Hong Kong is different, as the entire world has watched it move from a semi-liberal society to a society under semi-authoritarian rule. Under such intense gaze, it is doubtful whether either the media owners or the Chinese government would openly impose censorship. Thus, self-censorship has become the greater danger for the media in Hong Kong.
Given the discreet and elusive nature of self-censorship, it is difficult to prove its presence (Cheung, 2003). A number of studies have attempted to establish evidence for its existence, including large-scale surveys with journalists (Chan et al., 1996), surveys targeting readers’ opinions (Mingpao, 1998), analysis of newspaper editorials (Leung, 1999) and in-depth interviews with frontline journalists (Cheung, 2003). The findings of these studies all suggest that self-censorship has become of substantial concern to both journalists and the general public. However, because the concept carries negative connotations, neither journalists nor media organizations readily admit to practicing it. As the survey by Chan and Lee (1991) reveals, most of the respondents believed that others, rather than themselves, practiced self-censorship.
Such perceptions do not necessarily mean that these journalists are disguising their genuine intentions. Rather, as Lee and Chan (2008) argue, they would only perceive an act as constituting self-censorship if they have their own independent judgments of how a journalist should act in that particular situation. Besides, self-censorship can be effected at an organizational level (Lee and Chan, 2009). Through selective positioning and assignment, for example, frontline journalists who are likely to antagonize the power center will somehow be withheld. Social control in the newsroom can be structural in nature. In response, journalists may develop operational tactics. Lee (2007), for example, notes that journalists are more likely to engage in ‘strategic rituals’, which are techniques that allow them to construct ‘neutral and objective’ stories. This ‘intensified objectivity’, together with a defense of ‘professionalism’, suggests that journalists in Hong Kong are striking a delicate balance in their work (Lee et al., 2004).
Summarizing from these previous studies, to better understand self-censorship, it is important to ask what news values journalists adhere to in their everyday work. It is equally important to ask how journalists negotiate with tacit rules, and counteract the political and/or economic pressures in their work environment. Such data are unlikely to be obtained from surveys which focus more on general demographics and views. For example, in a survey by So and Chan (2007: 149), a ‘typical Hong Kong journalist’ is described as ‘young, well-educated, and not very well paid’. They were generally satisfied with the levels of job satisfaction and job autonomy. While statistical data speak much of the general characteristics of Hong Kong journalists, details regarding personal values and workplace dynamics are absent.
Journalist bloggers as interpretive communities
The inspiration for this case study was primarily the urge to deepen our understanding of the general conditions for journalists in post-1997 Hong Kong, with a focus on journalists’ interpretation and reinterpretation of changing news values, with particular emphasis on professional ideology and self-censorship. As such authors as Cheung (2003) and Lee (2007) would agree, self-censorship is more like a strategic game of coordination in which different players make careful moves so as to avoid direct compliance or confrontation. The ‘self’ that is involved in such processes often has to vacillate between doubt and clarity, self-query and self-assertion. These struggles, often latent in nature, could have their roots in political issues, institutional pressures, economic competition, social expectations and/or personal career choices. In other words, this complex story is by no means confined to the issue of censorship alone. Although interviews also provide details of the native perspectives of journalists, journalist blogs (j-blogs) provide a different avenue for access to their views. Blogs are often narratives (Rettberg, 2008: 111) that are rich in content. When read over a period of time, blogs may disclose details about the daily lives of their composers. In this way, journalist blogs provide a non-obtrusive means for the researcher to ‘discover’ themes that are central to the lives of journalist bloggers.
It is in this regard that the notion of ‘interpretive communities’ makes its direct relevance. Zelizer (1993) first used the concept to propose an alternative frame to account for journalistic practices that did not readily fit in the dominant frame in which journalists were seen as professionals. She found that journalistic communities emerged through cultural discussion, and in constructing and sharing stories about the past, they were able to define and redefine what appropriate practices meant in their work. The study was groundbreaking in a way that it raised a fundamental question about the professional ideology in journalism. Although it should be recognized that this concept has long been under scrutiny (Singer, 2003; Soloski, 1989; Tuchman, 1978), the simplistic divide between professional journalists and amateur bloggers does imply a different set of expectations for journalists, and hence for journalist bloggers. The seemingly conflicting nature of blogging and journalistic practices makes j-blogs a fascinating topic of study in this larger debate. As Shoemaker and Reese discovered, while it was possible to speak of a dominant occupational ideology of journalism, the perceptions and practices were often interpreted, used, and applied differently by journalists across different media (1996: 11). The ideal-typical traits or values in this professional ideology, ranging from public service, objectivity, autonomy, immediacy and ethics (Deuze, 2005), could actually be taken-for-granted concepts that needed to be interpreted in context.
The scenario is further complicated by the emerging new practices in journalism. Wall saw the trend toward a new form of journalism that was filled with ‘postmodern sensibilities’ (2005: 153). She compared the differences between traditional journalism and blog journalism in which she found that the former was characterized by a detached and neutral narrative style, whilst the latter was personal and opinionated. The relationship with the audience was also significantly different, with the latter seeing readers as ‘co-creators’ of content. Pavlik (2001) noted that the changing forms of online journalism brought changes to journalistic traditions. Matheson (2004) similarly questioned how the changes in journalistic conventions would make an impact on the epistemology of news. Fundamental questions about news values have been raised, whose answers are unlikely to arrive in more conventional social surveys. Journalist blogs which appear to be residing in both worlds present unique research opportunities.
Methods
This study aims to arrive at a contextualized understanding of the perspectives of a small group of Hong Kong journalist bloggers regarding a wide range of media issues. In addition to analyzing how they interpret news values in post-1997 Hong Kong, the study also discusses how j-blogs can facilitate a new form of ‘interpretive community’.
In October and November 2007, journalist bloggers were identified through snowball sampling. The snowball sample resulted in a pool of journalist bloggers who either knew one another in person or through blogs. Although it was far from a formal community, there was a sense of a loose network where bloggers were aware of the presence of others in this particular blogosphere. There were three criteria for case selection. First, the bloggers should be practicing frontline journalists engaged in daily news production. Second, they should have been blogging for at least a year at the time the study began. Finally, they needed to be willing to take part in an in-depth interview. To ensure more diverse views, the age, gender, years of experience and the media organizations these bloggers came from were also considered. After rounds of contacts and negotiation, eight journalist bloggers among those who met the study criteria agreed to participate in the study.
All the blog entries posted on the eight j-blogs between January 2007 and December 2008 were collected for textual analysis. A total of 1178 posts were read and assigned to six major categories, namely, everyday lives, work, media, current affairs, blogging and unclassified posts. The first two categories were content related to their personal and work lives. Blog posts that centered on more general issues in media or performance of other media organizations, and those that focused on current news, were put under the categories of ‘media’ and ‘current affairs’ respectively. A small number of posts about blogging practice were not included in the present analysis. These added up to 1044 posts. Further distinctions and categorization were made under each major category to identify recurring issues for further analysis.
Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the eight journalist bloggers in late 2007. All interviews lasted for one to two hours during which informants were presented the following key questions:
Why did you first blog? Why do you keep blogging?
How do you make sense of your online and offline identities?
What are the relationships between blogging and your work as a journalist? Have you ever encountered any problems or conflicts of interests because of blogging?
What are your relationships with other journalist bloggers?
What do you avoid blogging about, and why?
In November 2010, five out of the eight journalist bloggers were invited for further interviews. In view of other emerging social media like Facebook and microblogging, they were asked to review the meanings of blogging to them. At the time of writing, all eight bloggers have blogged less frequently than the time when they were interviewed, although their blogs were still updated at regular intervals.
Findings
The ‘who’ and ‘why’ of j-blogs
The previously cited survey carried out by So and Chan (2007) described a ‘typical’ journalist as ‘young, well-educated, and not very well paid’. The eight journalist bloggers in this study do indeed fit this general description. Table 1 presents details of their personal backgrounds. 1
The j-bloggers’ backgrounds
The journalists in this study are quite young, all below the age of 35. They all received tertiary education, and most majored in journalism. They work in both print and broadcast media. Three specialize in political news, one in international news, and one features on the opinion pages. Four of the bloggers do not use their real names as their online identities. However, one of these posts personal photos from time to time. Two of the bloggers who use pseudonyms also do not refrain from disclosing identifiable personal details, for example, their Christian names or the schools they went to. In other words, it is not difficult to infer their real-life identities from their blogs. Of the four bloggers who use their real names, two also disclose such information as the media organization they work for and their job duties. The other two, however, are more discreet about such information.
Most of the informants found blogs to be an avenue where friends and fellow reporters could follow what was happening. In other words, they felt connected in a familiar community through blogging. Blogger C first began her blog because she wanted to leave a comment on the blog of her reporter friend. Although she could post a comment anonymously, she felt it would be impolite to do so. To participate in ongoing conversations, she started her own blog (Blogger C, personal communication, 2 November 2007). Bloggers E and H also began their blogs when blogging became popular among their peers.
However, once they started blogging, the practice took on a different meaning. Both Bloggers B and D realized that blogs were sites on which they could write about the stories behind the news stories. Blogging provided them with a tool to fill in the missing pieces in mainstream media. This was especially important for Blogger D, who has specialized in international news since graduation.
To me, blogging is a way to provide more supplementary information to readers. I think the mainstream media is just too boring. There are too few international news stories in Hong Kong media. Media have done little to help people to understand such news. I like reading these news [stories,] and I have my [point] of [view]. I want people to read about the news as well as my opinions. (Blogger D, personal communication, 10 October 2007)
Blogger A believed that if the information did matter, she would try her best to make it appear in the mainstream media. Blogging enabled her to express her opinions, which otherwise would not be published. Blogger G expressed a similar view. To him, a blog was more like a column in which he could write something more personal, and hence something different from news.
Recurring themes in j-blogs
A breakdown of the 1044 blog posts into the four major categories indicates that the great majority were diary-like entries that touched on a wide range of matters in the journalists’ everyday lives (n = 610). The next most frequent were blog posts about current affairs (n = 179), work (n = 177) and media issues (n = 78). This section highlights several recurring themes which not only add details to the life of journalists in Hong Kong, but also show how these journalist bloggers make sense of the professional ideology in journalism.
Narrating the lives of journalists
Blog posts about daily encounters, experiences, hobbies, friends, family, health, career aspirations, personal thoughts and opinions about life in general all fall into the ‘everyday lives’ category. Together, they showcase the diverse and colorful lives of these bloggers. In this respect, the aforementioned description of a ‘typical’ journalist in Hong Kong becomes more dubious. Blogger E wrote insightful essays on gender and relationships. Blogger D blogged extensively on computer gadgets, classical music, films and football. Blogger H is a talented amateur photographer, whose writing is accompanied by beautiful pictures. Over time, readers will discover that Blogger C has developed a passion for running and has become a fan of marathons. We see these bloggers changing jobs, moving house, mourning friends, taking care of pets and getting married. The cumulative nature of blogs and the dominant use of narrative give blogging a highly personal character. Despite these bloggers being in the same profession, they are very clearly different individuals who lead different lives and have different outlooks on life.
Nonetheless, it should be noted that it is never easy to separate one’s life from one’s work. When it came to health, for example, there was a tendency for the bloggers to connect their poor health with their work. Five out of eight of them had at least once shared with readers their various health problems. Blogger H, in particular, frequently lamented the exhausting nature of her work life.
Similarly, when the subject of career aspirations was brought up, the blogs took on a gloomy undertone. For example, Blogger C asked in the title of one post, ‘Should I feel ashamed?’
It happened three weeks ago. I had just quit my job and had some free time before the new one started, so I went out with my college friends. We had fun all night, until the topic of salary was raised. She [one of her friends] asked me, in front of everyone else, if I was still getting that monthly salary. Everyone was startled hearing the amount. They kept telling me that I should change my job and the pay did not reflect my qualifications. (Translated blog post, Blogger C, 6 May 2007)
Blogger D also experienced such feelings of inferiority when he discovered that his classmate had successfully left the news industry and become a lawyer after further study (Blog post, Blogger D, 8 July 2007). Having already confessed that his passion for the field was fading fast, the incident prompted him to ask what the future would hold for him.
The opinionated journalist
Journalist blogs are also the sites where opinionated journalists are easily located. Opinions, whether positive or negative, are not a regular staple of the daily news. The informants were in agreement that such opinions should not appear in the press but it was another matter in blogs. For example, most of the bloggers in this study hold strong and negative opinions about the Hong Kong SAR government. In one post directly addressing Chief Executive Donald Tsang, Blogger G wrote in a charged tone: ‘Donald Tsang, you are worse than those scam gang[s]!’ (Blog post, Blogger G, 4 February 2007). Negative comments about government spin, the attitudes of government officials and various ‘wrongdoings’ abound. The informants were far from neutral in their stance towards government or, more broadly, ‘the establishment’. It must be stressed, however, that their opinions were not all negative in nature. There were also posts that celebrated the work and contribution of news sources. For example, when Blogger E wrote about the people she had interviewed, they were often described in a favorable light.
Tackling workplace rules
J-blogs also provide an avenue for journalists to tackle the explicit rules or tacit assumptions of their media organizations. In Hong Kong, although it is no secret that many media organizations are developing strong business connections with China, little is known about how this trend will affect the work of frontline journalists. In this study, the ‘Chinese influence’ was never mentioned in any of the blogs. Instead, these journalists expressed frustration about other, more mundane, practices in their daily work environment. Together they portrayed a picture in which the journalists enjoyed little autonomy.
One major rule was to work as the boss wished. Once Blogger H had settled into her new job in early 2008, she made the following reflection in a blog entry:
It is hard to resist the temptation of money. I opted to switch to another club. Speaking of press freedom, I believe that this one has the least freedom. Please do not ask which one I am talking about, and don’t guess here. Here, news is not so much about the news itself. Newspapers do not serve the public. They serve the interests of the boss. Staff are there to execute orders. No one cares how you get them done. Just do it. (Translated blog post, Blogger H, 19 January 2008)
Blogger A groaned in another post that one’s performance was increasingly linked to the hit rates one’s news got (Blog post, Blogger A, 13 May 2007). It speaks volumes about the intense competition in the field that populist sentiments may upset the news values that matter more to journalists. It was found that the young journalists in this study, most of whom have a university degree in journalism, were confused about the ideals and the reality. Blogger C said that she felt desperately lonely in the newsroom, where judgments of news values varied so greatly that she found it difficult to fit in (Blog post, Blogger C, 4 August 2008).
Negotiating professional ideology
Though diverse in topics and concerns, a notable thread ran through many of these posts. In the discussion about relationships between work and blogs, personal tactics against news control, sensationalism in media and press freedom, journalist bloggers were often interpreting what it meant to be ‘professional’.
Conflict of interest
There were posts that told how a news story was first developed or referred to some interesting trivia that would otherwise not make the news. Blogger B worked for a magazine and she often shared further information with her blog readers after the stories had been published. She explained that, in this case, her blog posts would not affect the sales performance of the magazine. The conscious efforts to avoid publishing similar content around publication time imply an understanding of the possibility of a conflict of interest.
In other instances, what constituted appropriate practice was less apparent. Blogger E frequently blogged about what had happened behind the scene of her stories. She called some of these posts ‘notes’, which she would then use to write up the full stories that would go to the mainstream media. She wrote about interviewees she had just met and, almost without exception, in a highly favorable tone. This led Blogger D to raise a question in a post on Blogger E’s blog about her conflicting role as a journalist and a blogger, wondering whether the latter role compromised the objectivity of the former. His query prompted Blogger E to respond as follows in her own blog:
This is my personal blog, where I write freely about my own thoughts. At times, my writings seem wild and exaggerated, but in the age of web 2.0, which places so much emphasis on user empowerment, I guess this is pretty normal. Some people like these subjective views, and others not. It doesn’t matter. After all, this is what a blog is about. When it comes to the interviews I write for my paper, I am far more cautious. I read and re-read my articles carefully. My editors, colleagues and supervisors also exercise their role as gatekeepers. We do it to strive for objectivity. In other words, we strive to provide evidence for every viewpoint. And each piece of evidence is supported by facts, not personal judgments. I guess this is what traditional media, including our paper, do to achieve credibility. (Translated blog post, Blogger E, 18 August 2007)
In response, Blogger D commented in a separate post in his own blog:
Someone told me that this blog is apparently a website for Blogger E to express her personal thoughts and views. What she blogs is clearly different from what she writes for her paper. At first glance, this is reasonable. Yet, I would rather say not … given that Blogger E uses the same online and offline identities when blogging and reporting, the blog readers know clearly that she is also a reporter in real life. Would it be too much if I expected the blog posts to observe the rule of objectivity? Unfortunately, what I read earlier in that blog was a series of essays that were filled with exceptionally favorable impressions. I cannot help but suspect the extent to which the published news stories are reported in a fair and objective manner. (Translated blog post, Blogger D, 22 August 2007)
It is noteworthy that Blogger D, who hailed the notion of objectivity, did not once mention anything about his daily work or workplace. Does it mean that the best way to avoid any sort of conflict of interest is to abstain from blogging about work at all? We will return to the complicated relationships between blogging and journalism in the discussion section.
Tactics against news control
Bloggers shared tactics they took in face of ‘inappropriate practices’ initiated from their seniors. Blogger H occasionally felt powerless. She once wrote that ‘regardless of how persistent I am, there is little I can do as I am paid by that organization to do the job’ (Blog post, 6 August 2007). Yet, she sometimes drew strength from her professional role: ‘At the very least, I can ask a brilliant question on location and let other reporters harvest it’ (Blog post, 12 October 2007).
Similar frustrations were shared by Blogger A. Working for a pro-democracy newspaper, she was upset when she found that the stories about the opposite camp were killed. In response, she posted news photos that did not go to print (Blog post, Blogger A, 24 July 2008). In doing so, she saved the stories that would have made a more balanced reporting in her personal blog.
Sensationalism
Bloggers in this study were highly critical of the evident sensationalism in media. They questioned the choice of front-page stories (Blogger D, blog posts, 24 August 2007; 12 February 2008); criticized the use of words in headlines (Blogger A, blog posts, 19 April 2007; 19 January 2008; 25 February 2008); complained about the sentimental undertones of reports about Liu Xiang, the Chinese hurdler who had to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics at the last minute (Blog post, Blogger H, 20 August 2008).
Although there is nothing new about such criticisms of sensationalism in the Hong Kong press, it is clear that the trend continues to bother the journalist bloggers in this study. In hindsight, their anger and frustration suggest that there are certain normative standards of journalism which these bloggers would still want to uphold.
Control and freedom
Press freedom is another recurring theme. Through their comments on specific incidents, the bloggers expressed grave concerns over the various hurdles they faced in their work as journalists.
One such hurdle is government control. Blogger D discussed both the practice of spin and the differential treatment of news organizations. Blogger B was concerned about the ways that legislation against indecent and obscene materials might threaten free speech.
When commenting on news of China, the bloggers were also clearly aware of the presence of information control. After the conflict in Tibet in March 2008, Blogger D admitted that it was difficult to discuss the issue, as the Hong Kong media had to rely heavily on the official news agency of China. Prior to the opening of the Olympic Games in August 2008, Hong Kong journalists ran into direct confrontation with the police in Beijing. Blogger H openly condemned the violence of the Chinese police, whereas Blogger B believed that it had occurred because of cultural differences between Hong Kong and China.
The Hong Kong media are used to playing the role of watchdog. The Chinese police simply do not have this concept. All they want to do is to cover bad things up and treat the media as their mouthpiece. The organization of the Olympic Games has not helped to bridge the gap. We can tell that this will not be the last conflict. Take good care, my fellow reporters! And I do hope that Chinese netizens can check out the truth from YouTube. Videos do not lie. (Translated blog post, Blogger B, 29 July 2008)
Avoiding sensitive topics
Absence counts, especially when unlike censorship, the silence is not imposed by some external force, but is self-initiated. Cheung (2003: 26–8) explicates the ‘indefinable’ concept of self-censorship, noting that the difficulty lies with the voluntary nature of ‘self’. What would bloggers avoid blogging about in this particular space?
The word ‘discreet’ kept showing up in interviews. The journalist bloggers were particularly careful when it came to issues and people related to the companies they worked for. Despite nothing adverse or extraordinary ever happening due to their blogging practices, they would rather ‘play safe’. Three bloggers (A, B and D) made it clear that they would not blog about secrets or situations in their companies. Blogger D realized that some of his bosses knew about his blog and he decided to adopt a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. His careful attitude was attributed to the fact that he was ‘working in a Chinese company’. Bloggers also refrained from blogging about colleagues or sensitive issues in the field. They mentioned ‘self-protection’ which suggested that they were aware of the potential problems that could arise with their employers, colleagues, sources and even the law.
Contrary to the popular impression that political pressure is silencing journalists, according to the findings of this study, the biggest threat appears to come from media owners. Only one blogger referred explicitly to the 4 June incident, 2 the commemoration of which in Hong Kong continued to capture the world’s attention. Blogger G made it clear that he would not blog about 4 June at all as he did not want his sources and informants to detect his political stance. He reckoned that this might affect their relationship, which would affect his work as a political journalist. Apart from this concern, none of the bloggers mentioned politics as a sensitive topic. Instead, almost all stressed that they were free to write about Chinese and Hong Kong politics if they had the urge to do so. They would rather not because they were already writing too much in their daily work or simply not interested in these topics.
Interacting with other journalist bloggers
Given the resource constraints, this research did not study the readers’ comments in detail. Yet both textual analysis and interviews showed that the eight journalist bloggers were fully aware of the presence of one another. They did exchange comments, as noted in the debate between Blogger D and E about objectivity in blogging. In the case when Blogger A lamented the editorial decisions of her superior, Bloggers B, C and F left comments to show their understanding and support. Despite these few instances, the interactions in this journalistic blogosphere did not appear to be active.
Interviews with journalist bloggers further confirmed this impression. While all said that they read other j-blogs regularly, they seldom left comments, initiated discussion or took part in debates. Blogger D said that he enjoyed reading between the lines to make guesses about what was happening in other companies (Personal communication, 30 November 2010). Blogger C agreed that reading others’ stories made her realize that she was not alone in the insistence on certain values, yet she also believed that nothing could be changed and hence the sense of helplessness still lingered (Personal communication, 1 December 2010). Blogger D believed that discussion forums resembled ‘interpretive community’ more than j-blogs did (Personal communication, 29 November. 2010).
With the many emerging social media like Facebook and microblogging, these bloggers admitted that they now blog much less frequently. When they want to share some thoughts, they would rather update their Facebook status. Still, they see blogging as something essentially different, as it allows them to formulate serious and often lengthy deliberations of their opinions.
Discussion
Interpreting the roles of journalists in semi-public blogs
The interviews with the bloggers showed that they fully understood that their blogs were by no means personal and independent websites. They could be read by their colleagues and bosses without the bloggers’ knowledge. Blogs are both private and public. This semi-public character of j-blogs serves a unique and meaningful function in the media landscape of post-1997 Hong Kong. Here, journalist bloggers maneuver between the two sets of boundaries where they can cultivate a space in which to vent their anger and discontent in personal blogs, while adhering to key journalistic principles in their everyday work.
As Rettberg (2008) argues, blogs can be treated as a medium, a genre or a mixture of many different media. As they are compiled in reverse chronological order, blogs allow readers to reconstruct a particular narrative about their writers, which inevitably leads to a deeper understanding of them. Working on one’s narratives, or reading others’, allows the writers and readers to maintain close or loose ties with their peers. The j-blogs also provide them with an avenue to air grievances, exchange views and reaffirm news values that are gradually losing legitimacy in their newsrooms. This sense of community, albeit virtual in nature, enables them to find some common ground in the highly competitive media environment.
Interpreting professionalism in journalist blogs
The notion of professionalism is repeatedly mentioned. The journalist bloggers in this study, mostly young and occupying junior positions in their organizations, questioned the roles played by their bosses in editorial decisions. They criticized populist headlines. They were disgusted when they believed they saw bias in media reports, which they interpreted as self-censorship. When translated into news values, the more frequent terms were objectivity, neutrality, credibility, impartiality and editorial independence. This insistence on professionalism shows that these journalist bloggers have certain normative standards for ‘good’ journalism.
These findings echoed arguments made by Lee and Chan (2009) on the organizational production of self-censorship in Hong Kong media. The stance of bosses, the many tacit workplace rules and the unspoken assumptions added up to immense pressure in newsrooms. Working with such limitations, journalist bloggers found it hard to meet normative professional standards. Over time, they developed personal tactics to address the subtle news control. When Blogger H said that ‘at the very least, I can ask a brilliant question on location and let other reporters harvest it’, she was actually struggling to make sense of the reality she faced. By redefining the meaning of professional practice, journalist bloggers flexibly interpreted and reinterpreted some of the golden rules advocated in western professional ideology. It somehow suggests that the meanings of being professional are indeed constantly in flux.
Ironically, blogging is likely to hurt the journalist’s professional status. Some of the informants were concerned about the potential conflict of interest when bloggers write about their work and their connections. In the case of Blogger E, for example, the favorable comments she made about her interviewees in her blog were considered to be inappropriate by another blogger as they violated the principles of neutrality and objectivity. The same argument could also be applied to negative comments, however. The journalist bloggers in this study tend to hold strong negative opinions about certain people, for example, the chief executive and other politicians. The fact that these negative comments did not raise concerns about professional performance suggests that the meanings of professionalism are far from fixed, but are instead subject to constant interpretation.
Interpreting self-censorship
This study argues that journalist blogs present a unique research opportunity to understand how journalists explicate the otherwise indefinable concept of ‘self-censorship’. Cheung (2003), drawing on Kelman’s theory, differentiates three levels of self-censorship.
While one may tend to view self-censorship as a temporary measure of compliance in public due to external pressure, journalists may gradually identify with the ruling regime and comply with the set doctrines as time goes by. Thus, a seemingly defensive mechanism adopted under pressure may harden into an internal acceptance of complete submission and socialization (Cheung, 2003: 8).
Judging from the evident anger and frustration in the j-blogs, it is unlikely that these journalists are ready to identify with the ruling regime. When considering the mixed findings, however, it is also difficult to determine whether their self-censorship, if this is what it is, instead represents compliance or internalization.
However, as discussed in the previous section, the journalist bloggers still attempt to negotiate the meanings of professionalism in the midst of mounting pressure. They produce the news their bosses want, and yet they still have their own will. This would be a form of compliance in Klemer’s framework. Meantime, the bloggers admitted that they were particularly discreet when they wrote about work-related issues so that they did not get into trouble. The sort of trouble they were referring to had nothing to do with the political scenario, as most people would have suspected. Although this could be due to the fact that the journalist bloggers in this study were relatively junior, and hence did not have to worry about higher levels of censorship, it could also be a sign that they have internalized the aforementioned pressures to such an extent that they simply will not touch on these issues in their blogs. Both cases are equally worrisome for journalism in Hong Kong and warrant further research.
Conclusion
This study is qualitative in nature and investigates only eight j-blogs. Obviously, its findings cannot be generalized to the wider population, and it is by no means representative. Its mixed and sometimes contradictory findings also complicate the picture. Notwithstanding this, these findings do suggest some general characteristics of the informants. They are exhausted, opinionated, confused, puzzled, angry, frustrated and worried. All these violate the commonsense image of a ‘professional journalist’.
This case has practical implications for both the Hong Kong media and for journalist bloggers. Considering that self-censorship is a ‘strategic game of co-ordination’ (Cheung, 2003: 3), the rise of j-blogs is definitely introducing new and uncertain elements to the game. As discussed above, journalist bloggers have used blogs to make sense of their journalistic lives and professional ideology. Despite a lack of active interactions, j-blogs have cultivated a space for journalists to share narratives that are deemed to be important to their personal and professional lives. In this regard, journalist blogs are facilitating a new form of interpretive community. Within this community, journalists are able to deliberate core news values in the Hong Kong context. The semi-public character of these blogs also allows the public access to some insider perspectives, albeit discreet in nature, and hence to keep an eye on news control and freedom. Even though the blogging fad appears to be overtaken by Facebook and microblogging, its function as an interpretive community will continue to play a role in this strategic game.