Journalists and openness

Lots of buzz about "Off the Bus" blogger Mayhill Fowler (see previous post), after a profile in the Los Angeles Times and a Howard Kurtz column in the Washington Post. Oh, and a New York Times profile too.

This woman has taken amateur journalism to a whole new level. Good for her.

Over at BuzzMachine, Jeff Jarvis discusses Mayhill's stories, too, and some comments he got about her and whether she should have identified herself as a journalist. But he is more concerned that in some of the comments, people who were obviously journalists didn't identify themselves as such, and sees a worrisome trend here.

Certainly something I've noticed, especially in blogs discussing media, like Bob Norman's Daily Pulp blog covering South Florida media. So many comments coming from people who obviously work for the media, but completely anonymous. I know it's a question of worrying about their comments getting back to their editors, but hey, no one can get a letter to the editor in the paper without being totally open about their name and address/phone number. Jarvis:

The acts of public figures in public places and even our lives there are now more public than ever. In an age that values transparency, I think that’s a good thing.

More on anonymous comments by journalists at E-Media Tidbits.

On another South Florida note, nice to see that journalism students at FIU blogged the IRE conference there this weekend.