There are so many bloggers out there writing about things ranging from the latest news in Iraq to the latest news on Toilets. Each blogger is arguably their own media outlet. Obviously, however, this wasn’t always the case. Up until a few years ago, the only major media outlets were print and television: The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, and the like. They were the masters of the field. Now here we stand, bloggers united and divided. We are truly the new media; but we still have a lot to learn from the Old media.

For many years, print was the only true outlet, reachable by only a few people. Television, though still young in the grand schema, made the media more accessible, but was still restricted to the media elite. But in that time, those media outlets learned the very things that we bloggers are just now starting to learn.

For instance, one of the first things I learnt while in Journalism 101 is that your headline and lead sentence need to immediately stand out. We’re just figuring that out now, with articles on how to write good headlines. While you could argue that print journalists didn’t have to deal with things like SEO, websites, or things of that nature, know that their difficulties are almost the same as ours: The fickle nature of the human mind is far harder to write for then any search engine. Journalists needed to write to attract the human mind, not a mindless search engine.

So, I would suggest sparing the 50 cents it takes to buy a paper from a vendor, and checking out how they write their articles. Remember, these guys have years of experience in their work, and the blogging media only has a speck of dust in the grand history of the media.

Please bear in mind that Blogging is completely different from regular Journalism! I’m not saying we should completely copy it, but we should still learn from it. After all, print journalists are essentially bloggers themselves in a print-style. Here’s a few things bloggers do that differentiate themselves from the print journalists:

• Bloggers often write with a very informal, conversational tone. Journalists, as I can attest, have a strict formal style that must be followed (Some bloggers follow it, and I’ve followed it as well for news articles, but mostly, that’s a rarity.)
• Journalists usually have years of experience before being allowed to write for a media outlet. Many bloggers on the other hand have little experience in writing, and learn as they go.
• Most Journalists follow the creed “Afflict the comforted and confort the afflicted.” Basically, they are the Robin Hood of culture. Many bloggers follow different philosophies, some as guides, some as spies, among other envisionments. For instance, I doubt Darren Rowse of Problogger or Seth Godin follow the journalist’s creed like journalists do, but that doesn’t make them any less of a person.

We shouldn’t disrespect these media outlets for their age. Rather, we should at least listen to what it is they’re trying to tell us. Again, they’ve survived for years doing what they did, and to survive, bloggers could adopt many of those tactics to truly make a new media.