In just over two weeks I'll be speaking (hopefully) with Alex by teleconference at Podcamp DC, which is a BarCamp style "unconference" dedicated to social media and its various applications and forms.
My talk is tentatively going to be titled: "Exploring Robot Awareness: How to write about serious subjects without taking youself too seriously and losing your audience."
Too many bloggers on a "mission" don't want to go off message, but what really brings readers back isn't just the hard content, but the passion and personality behind the words. I couldn't care less about meeting your average pool reporter, but I'd have a question or two for many bloggers, even those like myself who consider themselves journalists.
The temptation when trying to work as a journalist is to go all the way an adopt their rules, while we have the advantage of setting our own ethics and conduct that may be superior to what the traditional media say should be standards of conduct. We're also far more self-policing.
That being said, we can't write about our chosen topic all the time, so I'm going to talk about how to draw the reader into your personality. When a reader is invested in you, your opinion matters, and your facts count more than if you're just some dude with a blog.
Not taking ourselves too seriously opens the door for all kinds of relationship, partnerships, and for people to see you a potential collaborator. Even if you're the most cutthroat guy out there, it never hurts to have friends, favors to call in, and if people like you and you are known as a nice guy, you'll get access to things based on your reputation alone.
I have one criticism of many bloggers before I got bed (it's almost 430 am here), that many maintain multiple writing identities. One may wear a MommyBlogger hat half the day, but a Political hat later. I don't have a problem with it, but when you write on serious issues and want to make an impact, I feel (at least as an outside observer, and a guy at that) that if you identify youself as a "mommyblogger" you're already in a pigeonhole.
Keep the topic serious, keep the tone light, and don't forget that you can sacrifice 2-5% of hard content for 2-5% of stuff designed to keep readers more engaged with the publication.
Most political bloggers have an over-inflated sends of worth to the nominating process, and it's turning off alot of Dem voters. Why? We don't want to hear screed after screed. Maybe the way to start is to revitalize the high school school papers and introduce first-person blogging as a legit form of reporting.
Anyway, the point is when blogs start to become "mainstream" some wax philosophic about how they comply with this or that ethics code. That's nice, but the thing that will keep your readers coming back is not dry AP style content, but timely bursts of uncensored information that will keep us all far more informed than we are were back when we had to wait for the Wire Services, Radio, and Broadcast News.
You can be a broadcaster, but you need to stay on target and don't bother fact-checking if it's from a reliable source unless you can do it quick against PACER, FCC, THOMAS, etc. How about a nice federal prize for someone tk build a common CSS template for all US Government websites with local numbers fior energencies, health care, city services bills.
So, I guess the question is when does blogging become journalistic. Obviously the galleries are loath to deal with the issue, as it could lead to all kinds of crackpots. On the other hand, could a third party certify that the blogger (who, doing his own camera work and editing takes up less of a footprint than a regular reporter)is bona-fide and engages in coverage of the House, Senate and Federal Agencies.
I won't hold my breath.
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