Wednesday, December 19, 2007

What's the difference between a post and an article?

Yesterday I asked a question on Twitter. Today I'm still thinking about it.

I asked, What's the difference between a post and an article?

And here are the responses I got:

@fairminder (Jim Spencer of JBSPartners): research, focus, length, accuracy, supporting evidence, editing, revising, proof reading and sometimes a second pair of eyes

@LewisG (of bizsolutionsplus): Isn't a post something we place on a blog, often much shorter than an article which we find in traditional media or perhaps web site

@dJdU (Rich Hilliard): articles are forever, posts last only for the lifetime of their "container" (usually someone else's article)?

@jackhodgson (Jack Hodgson): good question. or "message" for that matter?


I asked the question because I had generally thought of posts as relating to blogs or online media and articles as relating to print or more traditional media forms. But sometime yesterday I found myself reading an piece online and I thought to myself, "this article is really interesting." I caught myself then wondering if this piece was also in print or if the publication was online only.

I considered the outlet to be an authority on the matter I was reading. So now I'm wondering if the answer is more subjective. Does the post / article distinction have less to do with the location of publication and more to do with the pub's authority or credibility?

What do you think?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sandy,

I think that the word "post" refers to anything written that is "posted" online. That post may have all the characteristics of an article, and could be accurately labeled as such. The difference being that print media would never call an article a post, whereas online media might use either word.

Lewis, bizsolutionsplus