BLOGOSPHERE CREATING AND WRITING BLOGS Sept. 21, 2009

NEWS FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE Facebook ends Beacon Project citing privacy concerns Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic asks readers to subscribe to the print version of his magazine— and they respond with fervor

READINGS Comments and thoughts on Andrew Sullivan’s “Why I Blog.” Blogging is “writing out loud.” But why do journalists “wait until every source has confirmed.” Why doesn’t this hold true for blogging when the end result can be so devastating? What we write online lives forever. What happens when no one corrects you? Blogging rewards brevity and immediacy. A blog bobs on the surface, but has its anchorage in waters deeper than print provides. Bloggers will be challenged on their view of the world in ways that journalists rarely are..or had been before blogs.

READINGS “A world where there is no distinction between good traffic and bad traffic.” Is the blogosphere a popularity contest where to become popular you serve the lowest common denominator? And is that any different than cable news today? Most important for your purposes is “the points of this essay have appeared in shards and fragments on my blog for years… Do you agree that this is a golden era for journalism?

EXPOSED The folly of youth—not learning how to swing on a trapeze before you taking a flying leap. The sacrificial virgin The sort-of famous Is this just part of our new “oversharing” world? “Ridiculous, petty, and small and suddenly, incredibly important.” The difference between Sullivan and Gould? He sees blogging as a version of journalism She sees blogging as a “record of our existence. Journalism—most of it—isn’t personal—or it shouldn’t be. How did we get here?

BLOGGING GUIDELINES Let’s go through in detail the blogging instruction sheet. Most important, stay with one topic. Don’t skip around. So choose a topic you will want to focus on every week. Link to interesting articles, data, statistics, anything that will help to support your post. Write tightly, concisely. Do watch grammar and spelling. Write great headlines. Remember that this is going to lead to your final news story and be a part of your final project.

SO WHAT’S YOUR BLOG? WHAT’S YOUR 30-SECOND ELEVATOR PITCH?

SEPT. 22 AT 9 P.M. Please post your first blog at 9 p.m. Make certain you have invited the entire class to read your blogs By class time, please read the blogs in your reading circle. Will assign reading circle/final project groups tomorrow and you your groups.

SEPT. 23 Discuss blogs in your reading circles—open up to full-class discussion. Lecture and discussion: From Old Media to New Media—Is Traditional Journalism Still Relevant. Three comments on any of the readings in “Elements of Journalism” through Chapter 7. Guest speaker will be rescheduled for later in the term.