David uses his blog to reference more studied articles on viewmagazine.tv that change only periodically, thus still attracting google.If all the hoopla is to be believed blogging is dead. Long live twitter.
Across the UK this week a myriad journalism courses will fire up to train a next generation of journalists. They do so in a climate that is both unpredictable and equally exciting.
It's often in the flux of uncertainty and confluence of new ideas that we see the emergence of real paradigms. It's a recurring feature of tech break throughs.
Even the great Guttenberg was not immune, neither was he alone in producing the greatest invention there ever was.
The basics will need to be addressed. Invariably when wemedia journalists talk about their new bag of goodies, they do so not at the expense of traditional practices, but as compass points that facilitate new finds.
Blogging to Discover
When the BBC Natural Science team discovered a new species of rat by equally using innovative explorative techniques we marvelled. Yes the product of their find was substantive and tangible, but their methods: infra-red cameras, doggedness, ambition and guile is a template for us all.
As many of us that will unveil the package for blogs, there will be many others, why I ask, deriding its use. But also disheartening is that for every student that starts a blog because they've been told to, after their module winds up, so the blog will be abandoned.
In many ways that's natural selection; nature at work sorting out those who believe in the power of blogging and those that feel it is an unnecessary burden.
The 15 minutes it's taking me to write this could be better spent elsewhere. A drink perhaps?
The blog is still a gift. Less rare now than it used to be 6 plus years ago, but it still has the power to propel you into a club. A club with no rules, but yields followers based around your ideas, the quality of their execution and your ability to engage.
So here are a few more, which no doubt have been discussed ad nausea elsewhere about why you should have and keep that blog. And if I sound unconvincing: Adam Westbrook, Dave Lee and Richard Brennan are just three reasons to continue.
1. The blog gives you visibility
2. Your blog allows you to hone your writing
3. Your blog allows you to try out new ideas
4. Your blog demonstrates your power of research
5. Your blog tells an editor how serious you are at writing
6. Your blog is a marketing tool. Your de facto CV
7. Your blog is a forum. Less a magic wand, but a space to experiment
8. Your blog revolves around ideas such as crowd sourcing, twitter, social networking et al
9. Your blog allows you to blog
10. Your blog could, at that interview, be the difference between getting that job.
11. Your blog says things about you not immediately apparent: time management, critical analyses and prioritising.
12 Your blog is you. It is the identikit used to judged you, form an opinion of yourself. Use it; keep it and nurture it wisely.
