I actually used to blog about my personal life all the time when Xanga was still a major social networking and myspace was just starting up. However, as time went on I got tired of writing these long diatribes about myself and things that interested me. Luckily I began writing for a website in April of 2006. So I really just stopped blogging after that, mainly because now I had editorial columns to post my views on my favorite subjects. However, I have to give credit to the blog, because my blog postings got me on www.411mania.com where I’ve written for three years now.
It is quite incredible how blogs have changed the journalism landscape though. Now almost anyone can be a journalist by just signing up for a blog, getting some advertising, fact checking things, and getting enough people to read it. The world at large having blogs can be a big help sometimes, such as the issues in Iran earlier this summer. Twitter, facebook, and blogs were the only way people could get out information to the world. In other cases it can be a hindrance because the blogosphere is still littered with editorial blogs or just rash opinions. Making this a big issue for people trying to find out what’s “real” news and what is just fluff.
Blogs have now made things a lot easier for newspapers and magazines to be able to post things immediately. Newspapers can post developing stories and update them as the day goes on, this allows for the newspapers to then take all of the information and put in the paper the next day. Television news anchors are now posting their thoughts on stories in their own blogs. I think its a good idea because viewers get to know the television personalities a bit more. The only issue is that having them posting blogs can compromise believability when they anchor on a story. If they post their opinion on it, it makes viewers wonder if they are going to be objective.
Blogs have also made it possible for people to practice writing and develop an interest in things. Those writers can post full videos, full interviews, pictures, and other things that help the writing and give them more attention. The readers can then instantly comment on your posting, giving you feedback on what was good and bad about it. Before you had to go through a process of logging in and viewing comments, now they just post.
Blogs provide the ability to do many things and has gone from just a place to write about feelings to full out articles. As time goes on it will change even more, but for right now I don’t think there is too much wrong with it.
