Nieman Foundation at Harvard
HOME
          
LATEST STORY
How young Kenyans turned to news influencers when protesters stormed the country’s parliament
ABOUT                    SUBSCRIBE
April 9, 2013, 2:23 p.m.
LINK: skift.com  ➚   |   Posted by: Joshua Benton   |   April 9, 2013

Skift notes a BBC program that looks at pay-for-play in the travel-blogging world. But Skift’s Jason Clampet is worried less by the journalism ethics issues than by the illusion of effectiveness:

The problem stems not from freebies, per se. It stems from the disconnect between how travel bloggers position themselves as influencers of consumers.

They are not.

Their audience is a fraction of a sliver of a minuscule, but they make lots of noise.

On a good day, travel bloggers are marketers, and their audience is an echo chamber of equal-minded travel bloggers. Many of them would like to be labeled journalists but don’t abide by standards of disclosure, or put the consumer first when they’re happily hashtagging about the destination footing their bill. The question of who do they serve — the client or a consumer — most often comes down on the side of the client.

If they want to be marketers, that’s fine. But don’t expect to be treated as a critic or a journalist when your master is anything other than the consumer.

The bloggers-meet-travel-industry-reps speed-dating event in Berlin is kind of amazing.

Show tags
 
Join the 60,000 who get the freshest future-of-journalism news in our daily email.
How young Kenyans turned to news influencers when protesters stormed the country’s parliament
A recent study shows the country’s news ecosystem is shifting towards alternative sources. This trend might shape journalism in the years to come.
Are you being tailed? Tips for reporters concerned about physical surveillance
“As a profession, you’d hope reporters would be good at reading people, situations, scenarios. So how many do you think spotted the spotters? None.”
Why a centuries-old local newspaper in New Hampshire launched a journalism fund
The Keene Sentinel weighed the pros and cons of becoming a nonprofit. It chose a hybrid option instead.