Aaah the blog… After last week’s musing on blogging and my apparent realisation that blogging wasn’t actually all that bad, that it offered the hopeful ideal of democratic journalism that I had been searching for- I have lapsed. The contention is one of interest. Whose interest is it in that I blog? My want to feed the public news? cathartic relief from daily frustrations? future employers, maybe? I don’t know, maybe all of those things.
But I have found that it is a weirdly compelling thing, blogging. Even when you think that everything you could want to say has been said already in the newsroom, in the dailies, on the web; you feel that with a blog you could say something new on Obama’s presidential election. You can use your voice to comment on issues that matter to you. Mike Wesch, digital ethnographer extraordinaire, has been an eye-opener. Check out His video it really does show what a dynamic force the Internet can be.
So what’s stopping me from running riot with this and using it to mobilise the masses? Maybe its because I am aware of issues like circulation and commitment- That is, that realistically a worthwhile blog is one that is consistently updated, and one that is crafted with the reader in mind (Who isreading my blog??). The circulation thing, is a daunting one for any cyber journo- we are automatically disadvantaged because there is no advertising money propelling us to the front line… I do, however, think that this negative aspect is precisely what makes blogging attractive to me- the freedom of being able to say what I want to say, without editorial restriction!
Alright, blogs! you rock! Now, the next issue to tackle is my technical handicap… how can a technically illiterate journo wade through the murky and confusing world of links, add-ons and media enhancing tools?
