Newscoma

Jackson Baker of the Memphis Flyer writes about blogging and how he thought he got it, but that he initially didn’t.

I admit, I didn’t get it at first either. And blogtopia keeps changing but his article talks a lot about the value of blogging and how journalism and blogging can walk hand-in-hand.

As both the print and broadcast versions of conventional journalism increasingly find themselves stranded somewhere between hospice and Death Valley, the blog as a genre has become something infinitely more substantial. And not just because staff-written blogs of one kind or another are by now staples of all journalistic enterprises (including the Flyer). The best action is still outside the house.

Outrageous opinion remains a staple of the independent blog. But more and more it is bloggers of that sort who are breaking news — looking into corners or under rocks while big-city dailies are cutting staff, contriving circulation-builders that don’t work, and trying to cover politics and government by passing along press releases.

When I started blogging in 2005, I had no idea about the world of blogging and what it entailed. It’s given me great joy, and a small, very tiny dose I might add, of heartache. Blogging is rather cool when you get right down to it as long as your having fun with it.

And it does open the door into a whole new world.