• Mon, 6 Jul 1998
• Sun, 31 May 1998

From: sapphire@en.com
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 19:22:03 -1000

In a lot of articles about online journals, I often raise the question with myself -- "Why do I call my journal a journal? What makes it a journal vs. a diary?" I was thinking about how one article called a diary an "oxymoron" because a diary is something kept privately, with no intended audience, and by making it public, it can no longer be a diary.

Then I see people use diary and journal intermixed, as if they are different names for the same thing. I tend to think they are not. I prefer to think of my daily writings as a journal.

Well, I was reading this weekend (writing makes me read, reading makes me write. It's a vicious, delicious circle that never ends.) from "Turning Life into Fiction" by Robin Hemley and thought this might shed some light on the matter: [look! she found some validation!]

"There is some crossover between the subject matter of diaries and that of journals, but I see a diary as a day-to-day recording of existence, a reckoning of sorts, a justification of one's existence through a kind of chronicling... diaries are esesentially private, although Thomas Mallon (in his book about people and their diaries, "A Book of One's Own") convincingly argues that diaries do have an audience, whether one's future self, a friend or relative, or posterity.

There's a certain random quality to a journal, or there should be. Absent from a journal is the deliberate day-to-dayness of a diary. A journal is essentially the place we store triggers-- things that have caught our attention and started our imaginations rolling."

I don't write much day-to-day stuff, and I try to be more random and creative. If I slip into some listing of daily events, that means I wanted to write *something* but shamefully was not in a creative swimming mood. Since journals can just focus on one facet of living (a pregnancy journal, travel journal, etc) or many facets, they don't have to be the "disclose all secrets" that diaries are supposed to be more of.

A diary and a journal are not the same thing. An online journal is not "an oxymoron" so I feel better :)

which do you write?

From: James <jamesf@efn.org>
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 11:46:21 -1000

Hmm. I say mine is a journal, and all the rest of you people have diaries. Don't you think "journal" sounds more classy?

Really, I didn't know there was that much of a difference. I like to think of diaries (am I spelling that right?) as quaint little books full of fun and interesting entries which allow you to look back upon your life and be entertained by yourself. Although, I was dating a girl once, and yes, I found her diary. We had been dating about a year, very steady kind of thing. We kind of broke up for a little bit, off and on kind of thing. Well, I read her diary entries and found out that she was sleeping with another guy. So maybe diaries are really meant for jealous boyfriends to open and read, so as to finalize the relationship. That's my belief, anyway.

From: AtticPlace@aol.com
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 11:29:21 -1000

I'd like to second what Al said....a while back I thought about what my online journal really was for me, and I too came up with the idea that it's an autobiography in progress....in fact I titled my latest incarnation of it "Autobiography of a Writer (in progress)". I know it sounds kinda pretentious, but it accurately describes what I'm doing, so I went with it. Besides, I'm bad at coming up with cool sounding titles like everyone else, they always end up sounding silly, so I figured something descriptive would be better. But yeah, I'd say mine's *definately* an autobiography in progress.

From: "Cory Glen" <coryglen@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 02:42:55 -1000

Anyone doing an autobiography online?

From: Al Schroeder <al.schroeder@nashville.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 03:23:13 -1000

Aren't we all?

Think about it....

Actually, I dip into my past often enough for journal material that my OLJ functions as a diary, a journal, a column, and an autobiography-in-progress.

From: Ryan Kawailani Ozawa <ozawa@hawaii.edu>
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 07:59:56 -1000

That reminds me. I think it was the Wired News article that used the phrase "interactive autobiography."

I can see the "autobiography," but I'm not sure if what most of us do is specifically "interactive." Remarkably _immediate_ and _dynamic_, sure, but although we may react and work with feedback we get, I still think online diaries/journals are essentially one-way communication.

From: <Zapaqui@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 31 May 1998 23:20:50 -1000

I always thought a diary was a record of one's day-today experience and acts as a chronicle, while a journal is a record of one's thoughts and ideas, not necessarily limiting to one's day to day living. Because I could not sleep and had nothing better to do, I actually looked up the words in the dictionary. According to the dictionary, they are similar. A diary is a "daily written account of events, experiences or observations" while a journal is "a record of events, personal experiences and thoughts, etc., kept day by day".

Are they the same or different? Is it all a matter of semantics?

From: ginkgo@mail.jade-leaves.com
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 02:05:00 -1000

They're spelled differently. My Webster's says they're the same thing. Different people have different perceptions about the perceived difference between the two words. Fabulous, bloody arguments can ensue when people take themselves too seriously and think that the difference is more than one of perception. No offense...I'm not accusing anyone, just trying to stop something before it starts. If we get into this debate, let's accept as given that the difference lies only in perception.

From: "scott liles" <scott_to_trot@email.msn.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 02:44:44 -1000

I think of a journal as an account of a man's or woman' experiences. A diary is probably the same to me at least, but it doesn't sound as cool for a guy to say "I have a diary." Hope I don't get flamed for this bit of sexism. :-)

the only words I've heard are journaller or diarist. We know enough about what we do to know we're not journalists. That doesn't make what we do less, it's like we're not journalists in the way we're not dentists, it's the wrong word.

and so far misquoting and misinterpreting tends to be the rule, with a few exceptions, of journalist articles on online journalling.

From: Zach Garland <zachsmind@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 13:52:58 -1000

We've touched on this before in here. Several times. Might as well do it again. LOL!

You have it right pretty much. "Journal" and "Diary" are very similar. It is a question of semantics.

For me, a diary is just a day to day account of events, and may include how one thinks about those events, though that's not the focus.

A journal however is a bit more involved. It's what's going on in the mind of the writer. Not so much what he did that day. It can include that, but focus lends more towards thought, and less on action.

A diary is what you did that day. A journal is what you thought that day.

Also a journal can branch off into little 'projects.' Diaries don't do that as much.

Ginkgo's work in her "Untitled" section, as well as her "Pond" project, that indicates her site is more journal oriented.

However, the actual daily entries at her site are just what happened for her that day. Not a lot of mental dissection going on there, so you can see where the definitions merge.

Bryon Sutherland's "Semi-Existence of Bryon" was more diary oriented. Short paragraphs daily accounting whatever happened in his life. There were other projects that he had on the side too, but they weren't as interwoven into his site as Ginkgo's projects are.

I'd say Bill Chance is more diary oriented, while Al Schroeder's work is more of an ongoing journal, but the definitions blur at points.

When you write for your website about the events of that day, you're writing a diary entry. If you find yourself going off on a tangent about a subject of interest to you, that ties into that days event, you veer into what I call journalling.

I used to delineate in my own journal. When I just posted a "day in the life" entry, that was diaristic. When I'd go off on a short story about Jessica and the Hall of Doors, that was more journal-oriented. A self-project for exploring the mind, as opposed to the life of the writer.

Saying I went to the movies today, that's a diary entry. Doing a review of the movie itself, that's journalling.

Actually I'm waiting for someone to coin a word or phrase that encompasses both "journal" and "diary" while specifying that it's electronic, as opposed to the old paperform of these projects. I don't think that will ever happen though. Would be nice.

HOWEVER hahahahah...

In the original quot above, I wasn't specifying about the difference between journal and diary. I was being anal about the more specific difference between an online journal writer and a reporter for a newspaper or other media project.

"Journaller" is a word for an online journal writer. "Diarist" can be a synonym of that, taking into consideration the slight differences. These two are very different from an investigative reporter or freelance writer.

"Journalist" is a word for someone who reports news, or writes feature articles for a publication or for television or radio.

Even in the electronic field, people who write for Salon, or Yahoo Internet Life are generally journalists, not journallers. I see a much more important distinction here.

Predominantly, journalists write to get paid. Journallers write because they love it.

Journalists write about world or current events, or just whatever's newsworthy in their own neighborhood, and they anticipate an audience of some sort. Journalists inform the public regarding issues that might directly affect the public. Journallers write about whatever their lives are about or whatever interests them personally, and they may or may not anticipate an audience. In fact in many cases they would write regardless of whether or not an audience is even there.

I wish the lady at NYT who wrote that article had taken the time to learn and then convey that distinction.

She made it sound like we thought we were her peers. That we should be given equal credibility or something. In fact, it's apples and oranges. We're all writers, but we're not the same KIND of writers and that's important.

A journalist could BE a journaller if on top of their regular paid assignments they also kept an online journal, or even a paper one for private purposes. However, a journaller is not automatically a journalist by proxy, or vice-versa. A journaller would have to actively go out and report on newsworthy events for the definition there to blur at all. And if the journalist doesn't keep a personal diary, they're not a journaller.

Thoughts? Criticisms? Opinions? Dia-rhetoric?