What's the difference between a journalist and a blogger?

Once upon a time, this might have just been a subject to get people riled up on Twitter. Yet now it has also become a more serious legal question in the wake of the conviction of blogger Crystal Cox for defamation.

Cox, who blogs about law, industry, finance and corruption was convicted for defaming the investment firm Obsidian Finance Group in this post. Cox accuses the firm's co-founder Kevin Padrick or being a "a Thug, Thief and a Liar" and writes that he is guilty of bankruptcy fraud.

The case took place in Portland, Oregon, where the U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez ruled against Cox and awarded $2.5 million to Obsidian Finance Group.

The controversial element was not so much that Cox lost her case as the judge's reasoning behind his decision. Cox argued that the basis for her post was an anonymous whistleblower, and maintained that she was unable to prove the factual basis of her writing without revealing her source.

Oregon state has a media shield law, protecting journalists from being forced by the judiciary to divulge their sources. Yet, controversially, the judge ruled:

"...although defendant is a self-proclaimed "investigative blogger" and defines herself as "media," the record fails to show that she is affiliated with any newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system. Thus, she is not entitled to the protections of the law."

The ruling caused consternation in some corners of the web. Mathew Ingram writes that the ruling "has very real implications for society when it comes to protecting freedom of information" and cites it as evidence that "some governments continue to lag behind" in adapting the a world where modern technology means that an can be anyone with an internet connection can be a journalist.

Mashable argues that in the controversy over whether bloggers are journalists, "the consensus has been largely settled -- on the opposite side of what Judge Hernandez has ruled."

The other side of the debate comes from Kevin Padrick himself, who told Seattle Weekly that "when everyone is media the concept of media is gone for all purposes."

Questions over the legal status of blogger in the US were further complicated because Seattle Weekly published a follow-up article, reporting that Washington attorney Bruce E. H. Johnson had said that Cox would have been protected by the shield law in his state.

Johnson helped draft the Washington state media law, which applies to "any entity that is in the regular business of news gathering and disseminating news or information... including...internet, or electronic distribution". The law takes its cue from a 2006 California ruling O'Grady v. Superior Court, in which the court decided that a blogger was a member of the media.

Despite the controversy, there are a few publications that seem to have more sympathy with the judge's decision. A blogger who posts under the name Korr Values writes that a close reading of Hernandez's ruling shows that it doesn't say "bloggers aren't journalists" but that it says "this blogger is not a journalist".

Although bloggers don't come under the protection of Oregon's shield law, he writes that the judge also considered whether Cox should be protected as a member of the media anyway. Hernandez concluded she should not because she had shown no evidence of journalistic education or credentials or of adherence to journalistic standards like editing or fact-checking. She also did not prove that she had notes from conversations and interviews, agreements of confidentiality with her sources, independent original work or had made an attempt to get the other side of the story.

While the conclusion is still likely to anger some, it is certainly a broader definition of journalism than "bloggers are not journalists" and could serve as a useful starting point for debate in a country where media laws are still subject to inconsistency.

Sources: Seattle Weekly (1) (2) (3), bankruptcycorruption.com, GigaOm, Mashable, Korr Values, Associated Press, Hat tip: @journalismfest