Bloggers Vs. Journalists // The War Of The Online Worlds

This week, The Times released an article about fashion bloggers annoying the residents of Notting Hill because they use the backdrop of the quintessentially British-looking houses to pose for pictures for their Instagram.

When the article made it’s way to Twitter, there was a bit of a divide within the blogging community. On one hand a lot of people said that what they were doing was wrong and they should respect the privacy of someone’s home, but on the other hand

People also shared content from ‘Photographers’ rights in the UK’ which stated that as long as you are not standing on private property (of which a street isn’t) there is no law preventing you from shooting there.

Now I’m not saying I condone people walking up the steps to someone’s house, leaning on their car or leaving behind litter from one of their shoots, but I do believe that getting content that is aesthetically pleasing is part of the job, when you rely on your images making you money. But on the other hand, I may think completely differently if I was a resident of an area that is frequented by tourists after they’ve seen their favourite blogger posing there a couple of days earlier.

However, as a Northern Blogger, who follows a lot of London-based Instagrammers, I do have to admit that seeing the same backdrop again and again can be quite boring and uninspiring – there’s only so many times I can see a picture of the outside of Peggy Porschen without wanting to ask people if they’ve ever ventured past the front door.

Maybe it’s time for London bloggers to not rely of the pastel coloured houses of Portobello Road, and find new areas for their backdrops to keep everybody happy. Wouldn’t that be the dream scenario?

Nowadays, it seems as though traditional media outlets are slandering bloggers and online content creators to get themselves story, when in reality, is it that they are just scared that journalism is a dying career?

When I first left school, all I could ever imagine was to be a journalist at a high-flying magazine or newspaper, living in a loft apartment in the city, and brunching at every opportuntiy possible (at least one of the dreams came true!) and I know that was a popular path for the generation of my time; but in reality, this was the only real career path for those with a love of writing back in the day. Pair that with an undeniable love of Sex And The City, and you can see where the real zest for this career came from.

But that was a time that blogs weren’t a popular place: It wasn’t a ‘thing’ to have your own blog, and now every other person I meet has one – and that’s incredible! People are using their platforms to voice opinions, share the latest fashion trends, create recipes and advise people of how to get around on holiday, and it seems as though people trust what bloggers have to say over the media.

The internet has blown up in the best way possible over the past few years, and bloggers have taken full advantage of it doing just that by carving their own paths.

10 years ago, being a full-time blogger was unheard of, but nowadays, it is a viable career option, so much so that studies are showing the majority of school leavers see this as the path they want to go down when they leave school. Even when I was at university, we were encouraged to have a place to call our own on the internet, and who would have known the potential of it all – certainly not me.

And I think that’s the beaity of the online world, and the part that traditional journalists tend to struggle with – there is no set path of how to get into blogging, or where it could take you, whereby if you take the print media path, you are only ever really able to write what people are telling you to, over what you have a real passion for.

But back to the article written by The Times. It paints the blogging world in a bad picture, but is it pure jealousy that these girls are working for themselves, earning good money from doing so, and are showing the world that you don’t have to be employed by a snooty newspaper in order to have your say on the world.

I’m not saying that all bloggers should use their voice to talk about politics and current affairs, but even raising awareness for issues that surround their audience – for example, when Sophie Milner filmed herself going for a smear test to show that there is nothing to worry about after the figures showed that 28% of women missed their appointments in the last 12 months – encourages younger girls to feel as though they’re not alone.

And that’s the piece of journalism that is missing in the mainstream media – the outlet for young women to read about the issues that affect their life, instead of being publicly shamed in a national paper for doing their job. The magazines we had when I was growing up regularly feature bloggers on the cover now, instead of celebrities, which shows that they are trying their best to ride the wave, because no one knows what is next for content creators – so why not enjoy it whilst you can?

But also, what about the side of journalism where paparazzi sit in gutters to get an up-skirt shot of a woman? Or make up a story about someone’s marriage because they’re seen having lunch with another person of the same sex? Why are those people not being talked about in The Times and ridiculed like these young girls are?

The whole world of blogging is still so new to a lot of people, but in my eyes, it isn’t going anywhere. The people who write these things about online can say what they want about bloggers, because at the end of the day, there is an army of strong, independent women that have each other’s backs, and that’s what I think their real problem lies with.

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