Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Local "Big" Media Blog

WCPO's Dennis Janson is trying his hand at blogging. DJ has in the past done commentary on WCPO's news broadcasts, but now is attempting it with his blog: Spare Change. So far there is only one post from last Friday. The post was purely commentary on the "No-Call List" which is about to take effect, but is being challenged in court.

Some criticism: first Dennis needs to loose the "centering" in his posting, that makes his post look like a poem. It might be poetry to DJ's ears, but it will not be taken that way by most readers. The more troubling problem is that this is written as broadcast copy, right down to his tag line at the end. Blogging is a literary form of journalism. Broadcast journalism conventions come across even more hokey in text form than on air. I hope Dennis revised his method and writes to a reading audience, not to one watching him. I also am disappointed that there is not more than one post. The element of blogging that makes it fun is the timeliness to it. If he is going to hand his copy to the web editor once a day, they might want to not call it a blog. He might want to provide reference links to what he is talking about, that adds depth to a blog post, and is generally part of the "standard" format for blogs. I welcome the addition of a professional outlet's blog, but at this point it needs more in it before I can even blogroll it, which is something he needs. Blogs are built on networking, and DJ's blog lacks any links to other blogs.

In light of the SacBee controversy of newspaper blogs, I wonder what kind of editing Dennis is subject to. So far it sounds like he will be edited to a degree, but until more posts arise, we will have to wait and see.

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