Learning by doing: I asked Lotta if I really needed to add links to yesterday's freakishly-long post. I was hoping for a no, but she said yes, as i knew she would. So i spent way more time than I had searching for appropriate links for all those names, etc. What I discovered is that Alberto Manguel was right: a library that has everything becomes a library that has anything.
Linking to sites that were current, comprehensive and somewhat neutral (if you'll forgive the term) was difficult in many cases. And I didn't always do the best job of it. Which makes me wonder if the ease with which we can access (and link to) information online also presents a burden for both writer and reader. Digital journalism (ahem, blogs?) based on quick-clicks, it seems to me, can open the door to a whole bunch of bias in a whole bunch of ways.
Unless we become our own editors, yeah? Caveat emptor. bk
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Interesting thoughts about linking within text. I think as a culture, we are becoming desensitized to this. As a regular online content consumer, I regard links within blog posts to be like "sources" in the story. Just as any writer chooses who to quote as their sources, a blogger must choose which sites and articles to link to in order to tell their story. And while yes, I agree that this adds more bias into certain stories, it's ultimately up to the reader to reflect on what is provided and comment on what they might think is right or wrong :)
i think that's the beauty of blogging - it gives us all a chance to reflect on the writing and bring our own thoughts and values to the table, making journalism a more interactive activity.
I am struggling with this whole journalism/blogging intersection discussion. I am just a happy uncomplicated blogger. Since I am not a journalist I am also completely unfamiliar with the idea of having an editor. My only guide when writing (whatever it is) is a piece of advice for writing fiction that I read somewhere: Make sure every sentence is true.
i am struggling with the intersection, too. hence the blog. bk
Yeah... but I think you get something that I don;t. Most of the time I think blogs on the internet are just a giant break room: people talking about stuff. Bragging, being funny, or serious. Journalism it is not?
but journalism it is becoming, at least in certain areas. and for certain readers, who rely on blogs for news and make no distinction between the two.
is there a spectrum -- from break rooms to j-related riffs to aggregators to reporters' blogs to reporting itself, as in Talking Points Memo?
they're all out there, they're all called blogs. primordial soup.
There probably is a continuum. I don't know why my head hurts when I think about these things. I like it that everybody has access, but for me personally a blog is almost always personal commentary.
but i think that's the beauty of a blog Lotta.
Blogging is like yelling out of a 100 story building and hoping someone will listen (or not listen, whatever the case may be.)
I think it's very interesting how many ways people can interpret the "job" of a blog.
I didn;t say it was bad, Andrea.
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