journalism blogs: an introduction
DESCRIPTION
Blogs cover a very wide variety of styles and approaches. Blogs written by journalists, or housed on the websites of media organizations, are also widely varied. To understand blogs, blogging, and the audiences for blogs, we have to begin by looking at real blogs and comparing them. This presentation was given to 3rd-year journalism students at Rhodes University, South Africa.TRANSCRIPT
Mindy McAdams, Professor
Department of Journalism
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida, USA
JOURNALISM BLOGS
What is a blog?
What is a blog?
• A personal diary?(Does a blog resemble a diary?)
• The same as a newspaper column?(Does each blog post resemble a columnist’s writing?)
• What makes a blog different from other kinds of writing and other kinds of websites?
http://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog
Vocabulary: The blog
Vocabulary: A post on a blog
“The Lede is a blog that remixes national and international news stories — adding information gleaned from the Web or gathered through original reporting — to supplement articles in The New York Times and draw readers in to the global conversation about the news taking place online.”
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/
• Updates• Links
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/
• YouTube video• Links
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/
• Web photos• Links
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/
Links to outside sitesUse of videos and photos Perspectives on the news (instead of reporting the news)
“Generally, the blog author establishes a relationship based on trust with his or her audience. This relationship is intentionally personal, in contrast to the professional objective detachment of a journalist … Bloggers, however, speak directly to their readers. ‘The personalities of the writers come through. That is the essential element of blog writing’ (Winer, 2003).”
Armstrong and McAdams (2009)
Please open this URL:
http://bit.ly/mmjblogs
What do the blogs have in common?
• On each post• On the blog pages
How are the blogs different?
Questions• Is there a set length for each blog post?• Can a blog have more than one author?• Do all blog posts have links?• In one blog, do the individual posts differ a lot, or not
much?• Do all posts receive about the same number of
comments?• Are the paragraphs typically short, or are they long?
1. Audience
2. Tone
3. Links
4. Images and video
5. Comments
6. Frequency
Considerations
Audience
Tone
Links
Images and Videos
Comments
Frequency
1. Audience
2. Tone
3. Links
4. Images and video
5. Comments
6. Frequency
Considerations
This URL contains your assignment:
http://bit.ly/mmjblogex
