Finally final questions.

1. Describe the importance of blogging to modern day journalism. Limit--one paragraph
Where citizen journalism used to be thumbed at by 'legitmate' journalists, today, they may have captured something that their more official big brothers and sisters couldn't. As newspapers continue to pander more to the hyper-local, bloggers can take it a step further. Without the tag of 'journalist', they can catch things in their immediately local surroundings that a journalist, with their intimidating title, may not.  


2. If you are going to continue to blog, why? or why not?1 paragraph
Yes, I am, though not in this space. I anticipate when I move to my new job, I will have a sports column, and I plan to have a blog that is an extension of that. I look forward to being able to place myself in the story every now and then. I think it's a phenomenal way to capture the essence of community journalism.

3. If you were going to keep blogging, how will you change your blog in the future? 1 paragraph
I will, and really the venue would be the primary change. I imagine I'll have an official masthead to operate under, and obviously it would be significantly less about me, and more about the subjects I cover. It obviously will be more about the Rawlins sports scene, and I will definitely use a tone that beckons conversation. 


Thanks, Dr. Clark. 


If there was one thing I'd change about this class, and it would be minor because I had a great time, would be to offer more starting points. Remember at the beginning, when you said to read certain links? I loved being able to weigh in on those. Granted, those were right in my wheelhouse, but still. I think blogging, and in large part journalism, are at their best when they are a conversation. 

I have a Question.

What's the best way to reach people that you believe would most likely be interested in your content?

People of America: It's Not Us, It's You

It's always nice to be regaled by the stories of a veteran journalist.

No one tells a story better than a storyteller who has mastered their craft. And few people have more stories to tell than someone who has done it for decades to make a living. 

I had this privilege last week, but it wasn't all fun and games. 

Last week, I was in a Q & A session with Dr. Sridhar Krisnaswami of SRM University in Chennai, India, a longtime foreign correspondent working in America for The Hindu. He told us in the audience about the success of Indian newspapers right now, The Hindu alone boasting a modest four million circulation. 

Wait four million?! Stop the presses. Or run them. A lot. 

I'm about to employed by a newspaper with around four thousand, three thousand in print, a figure I was pleased to hear. 

But four million? As in 4,000,000? 

It just seemed unrealistic. Or promising. 

I had to ask Krisnaswami what the Indian secret was. Was it something they did? Was it something (else) in the water? How could a tried and true, red, white and blue rag harness some of that Indian success? 

The answer was as discouraging as the potential solution was hopeful. 

It's the literacy rate, he told me. The percentage of literate people has been on the rise in India, and with millions of people clamoring to exercise their new ability to dissect the written word, newspapers were front and center to provide the goods. 

I never thought America's already firm grasp of reading the English language would be a blight to my chosen industry. Go figure. 

It's almost as much a commentary on the direction of American society as much as it is one on the Indian newspaper industry. The people of India want to read, want to learn. Americans? We've been granted so many apparently unearned gifts that we no longer realize what we have. 

We could catch up on world events, but instead the people of the world's most active seeker of global justice is more concerned with the affairs of a handful of neanderthals in a New Jersey townhouse. We could vote, we could paint, we could just about anything we damn well please, but having all that freedom is quite frankly too much work. 

Really, America? 

Not that you're listening. 

Scripture with a Soundtrack

Writing, especially good writing, ain't easy.

Not that I've been too regularly associated with the latter, but even pedestrian writing is at least challenging.
Especially in a concealed, quiet office. When you're left with only your thoughts to keep your company, it's hard to reel them in. What were once segments of flowing prose are scrambled and useless.

Writing is rhythm, and silence doesn't have much of a beat.

Enter music. Giving writing a soundtrack gives it direction, it gives it pace and it gives it feel. A certain piece of information can be communicated in a variety of ways and still be the same information, and truthfully stated.

That being the case, a writer's own personal style can be greatly effected by the kind of music they choose to write to. A portion can be a ballad, moving slowly, but with grace. It can stop and smell the roses.

Or in this case, the Apple Blossoms. 


A piece can abandon subtlety and barrel through a page like a freight train.

Clearly, I'm on an Esperanza Spalding kick. I can't help it. She's my age, she's beautiful, she's limitlessly talented, and she bested Bieber at the Grammy's.

Be still my heart. But not my writing.