Originally published at NationalJournal.com
By K. Daniel Glover
When the history of the online media revolution is written, 2006 should merit special mention as a turning point for the blogosphere. This is the year, for better or for worse, when bloggers earned their first official media stripes.
Bloggers have considered themselves media almost since the beginning of their brief existence. They proudly claim the “citizen media” mantle and call their work by names like “grassroots journalism,” “participatory journalism” and “public journalism.” But self-proclamation doesn’t carry the same weight as official recognition — something bloggers have only just begun to win.
The first significant victory came in March, when the Federal Election Commission largely exempted blogs from campaign finance rules on the grounds that they are media. They applied to blogs the same exemption that governs newspapers, broadcasters and other traditional outlets.
The commission had hinted at such a decision in a November advisory opinion that said the costs incurred by one blog publisher “in covering or carrying news stories, commentary, or editorials on its Web sites are encompassed by the press exception.”
The later rules, which the agency approved unanimously, recognized “the Internet as a unique and evolving mode of mass communication and political speech that is distinct from other media in a manner that warrants a restrained regulatory approach.”
More recently, bloggers have scored wins in the state judicial and legislative branches, including a ruling for independent journalists who had been sued in California by Apple Computer.
K. Daniel Glover 