Auto-racing blogger Shawn Courchesne’s experience with the Hartford Courant demonstrates one of the key advantages of blogging: interactivity. Relatively anonymous as a print reporter, he described the marked increase in interactions with readers once he began blogging, both online and in person. Blogging, as a medium, individuates journalists who might otherwise simply be one more forgettable byline among many in the printed paper. The reporter’s ability to post a photo, respond to reader comments and maintain a centralized page highlighting their work makes for a far more personal, targeted relationship with readers.
For writers who feel constrained by column-inch requirements in print media, blogging can be a welcome release, allowing posts as short or as long as the subject matter calls for, and the ability to deliver content in the form of videos or sound slides in addition to the usual text and photos.
Blogging, however, also has its pitfalls. Once started, a blog requires regular updates, and many initially committed bloggers end up quitting in frustration – of the 133 million blogs in Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere, only 7.4 million had been updated in the past four months. A blog, by definition, is never finished, and the mandate for constant revision and interaction that some find exhilerating, others simply find oppressive.
April 21, 2009 at 11:57 am |
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