I started pitching stories to The Coast and other local publications while I was still taking journalism classes at the University of King’s College. I dropped the ‘student’ and called myself a journalist. So should you.

It felt dishonest at first, neglecting to mention I was still in school. I had a few years under my belt writing and editing at the Dalhousie Gazette, but no one had paid me for my words and that seemed like a moral sticking point.

Geoff Lowe self-identifies as a student journalist. This week, UNews.ca published his commentary on that label. It’s difficult to read Lowe’s piece, not because he’s an unskilled writer but because his words evoke frustration and, surprisingly for a young guy: exhaustion.

He explains that OpenFile photojournalist and King’s student Adam Scotti was denied entrance to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s press conference, and another of his colleagues was ignored when they requested a press pass to the Everything to do with Sex Show. Lowe is correct to conclude his niche of journalism isn’t being taken seriously.

“In order to keep the student body informed, student media needs to be taken seriously. Our role is more than just as students. We're a growing local media presence.”

Lowe has a point; his demographic serves the needs of the university community. He’s on to something. He’s raising a question, as all good journalists do: what makes a journalist anyway?

In the last few years, as the print world lurched into a new bleak reality, there was a backlash against journalism’s newest online formats. ‘Citizen journalism’ was one of them. The new term encompassed bloggers with no formal training who had a sincere drive to report on events in their lives. If these bloggers were to attend King’s or a similar school, they likely would grow into fine journalists. So why don’t they meet the definition?

King’s Online Journalism Professor and UNews.ca Editor Tim Currie tweeted the answer:

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— Twitter API (@twitterapi) December7, 2011

Guardian Blogger and Journalist Roy Greenslade writes that a U.S. court ruled a blogger in Oregon did not qualify for the same rights awarded to journalists. Laws in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada award Greenslade and other reporters the right to conceal the name of a source. But blogger Crystal Cox, who considered herself a journalist, was successfully sued for defamation. The judge said:

"Although [the] 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." [Emphasis added.]

Greenslade is a blogger. He’s also a journalist because he’s affiliated with the Guardian, a respected news source. Student journalists — Lowe, Scotti, McEwan, Caulfield et al — you are affiliated with legitimate journalistic publications: UNews.ca, the Dalhousie Gazette, the Halifax Commoner, the King’s Journalism Review.

Local student journalists may not always be paid for their work (we’ll tackle that another day), but their words have been vetted and published by some of the brightest minds in Halifax journalism: King’s professors. In addition, they have robust portfolios bolstered by hands-on experience. And as Lowe writes, they serve a community.

So what the heck is journalist?

A journalist is someone who has ongoing experience producing journalism for a respected news source.

That’s my definition. Start using it.

Photo by Paul Shreeve