Mindy McAdams, Professor

Department of Journalism

University of Florida

Gainesville, Florida, USA

JOURNALISM BLOGS

What is a blog?

What is a blog?

• A personal diary?(Does a blog resemble a diary?)

• The same as a newspaper column?(Does each blog post resemble a columnist’s writing?)

• What makes a blog different from other kinds of writing and other kinds of websites?

http://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog

Vocabulary: The blog

Vocabulary: A post on a blog

“The Lede is a blog that remixes national and international news stories — adding information gleaned from the Web or gathered through original reporting — to supplement articles in The New York Times and draw readers in to the global conversation about the news taking place online.”

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/

• Updates• Links

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/

• YouTube video• Links

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/

• Web photos• Links

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/

Links to outside sitesUse of videos and photos Perspectives on the news (instead of reporting the news)

“Generally, the blog author establishes a relationship based on trust with his or her audience. This relationship is intentionally personal, in contrast to the professional objective detachment of a journalist … Bloggers, however, speak directly to their readers. ‘The personalities of the writers come through. That is the essential element of blog writing’ (Winer, 2003).”

Armstrong and McAdams (2009)

Please open this URL:

http://bit.ly/mmjblogs

What do the blogs have in common?

• On each post• On the blog pages

How are the blogs different?

Questions• Is there a set length for each blog post?• Can a blog have more than one author?• Do all blog posts have links?• In one blog, do the individual posts differ a lot, or not

much?• Do all posts receive about the same number of

comments?• Are the paragraphs typically short, or are they long?

1. Audience

2. Tone

3. Links

4. Images and video

5. Comments

6. Frequency

Considerations

Audience

Tone

Links

Images and Videos

Comments

Frequency

1. Audience

2. Tone

3. Links

4. Images and video

5. Comments

6. Frequency

Considerations

This URL contains your assignment:

http://bit.ly/mmjblogex

JOURNALISM BLOGSMindy McAdams

mmcadams@jou.ufl.edu

Twitter: @macloo