Dienoraščio žanras žurnalistinės kaitos dramose ; The genre of blog in the drama of journalism change

Abstract

"Moving" of a diary into virtual network at the end of the 20th century has opened up an opportunity to circulate knowledge according to interests, yet it actually does not change the role of journalism as a social institution. Currently, a blog is not only a genre of journalism, but also a mode of professional expression. In this respect, a journalist blog (according to the journalistic professionalism criteria) should be distinguished from the blogs of persons of other professions. The author of the article concludes that a blog has been establishing as a source of social expression, a publication and a genre of journalism; journalist expression of the genre of blog differs from other expressions of this genre when it formally meets the criteria of a journalistic piece of work: selection of social information according to relevance, closeness, recency and reality of facts, reference to sources, truth investigation; a blogger in Lithuania may be and is treated as a journalist, since he is an author of publicised information (it is particularly important in relation to the Parliament, because formally every elector has the right and possibility to observe sittings); a blog as a publication is more than a piece of creation – it reveals cultural identity of the author(s), it helps perceive the psychological portrait and behaviour of a person (or an organisation); therefore, it should be analysed in different social aspects on the web. The analysis of a blog as a source of data is an object worth the attention of journalists; the legislator of the Republic of Lithuania could supplement the definitions of the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public with the concept of a "blog", yet defining it as a means of information only (next to a newspaper or a journal), since, being a publication, it surpasses the notion of a genre (just like in the case of an interview – as a working method discussed in the article).