I have a love/hate relationship with blogs. I write this one, often reluctantly, and tend to fill it with photos more often than not because I’m not that comfortable with what some consider to be acceptable blog fare.
We also have a blog on our political web site, Capitol Hill Blue, although Callie Houston edits it and I seldom contribute anything to it.
Part of my concern, I think, is a journalist’s snobbery towards blogs. I admit to sharing some of my journalist colleagues’ beliefs that bloggers, particularly those in the political realm, are little more than reporter wannabes who pass off opinion as fact and speculation for real reporting. I realize this is an elitist view but 40 years of digging through musty courthouse records and pounding the street for information gives me some right to such bias.
This point was brought home recently when a Bill Powers, a friend from my days in Washington, wrote a humorous piece for The National Journal on headlines he’d like to see. One of those was:
Blog to Offer Facts, Polished Writing.
ExoticArnold.com, one of the nation’s top political blogs, will begin offering original factual reports gathered by the blogger himself, Arnold S. Bixby, in regular forays from his apartment in the Dupont Circle section of Washington. In addition, all posts on ExoticArnold.com will now be edited for cogency, style, and rhetorical rigor by an editor with more than two years’ professional experience.
Bill hits upon a complaint that many journalists have about bloggers: the perception that too many of them site in front of their computer in their pajamas (or less) and unleash tirades based on what others have written without doing any honest research themselves. There are exceptions. We have a good one here in Floyd County. David St. Lawrence goes out and gets stories and reports on them on his Ripples blog and contributes as well to FloydCounty.Com.
But too many seem to write with the belief that what they have to say is somehow important and that writing about the same thing day after day is entertaining or interesting to readers. As I look back over Muse I realize that I have fallen into that trap.
So I’m taking the weekend off to retool Muse and try and make it more interesting in the future. That means more about issues here the Blue Ridge and less about moi.
I appreciate your goal.
But I also really appreciate the photography!
And never having met you, and not wanting to put too much trust in a stranger’s word, I’ve found this blog to be a good way to get a “picture” of the person whose rants and reporting I’ve enjoyed (and frequently found more reliable and accurate than other news sources I visit regularly).
I get a sense of trustworthiness, of honesty, from “seeing” the man behind the words. I hope that man won’t disappear completely from this blog. I think those hints of humanity within the reporter have value.
Suggestion for photos: post photos that can be enlarged. Even if they’re zoomable to just 1 megapixel. You post very nice photos but scale them down to 1990 resolution and I can’t blow them up and take a look see 🙂
Sean
As one who blogs on a 24×7 basis, I have to confess that many a post is written in PJ’s. It seems so “fifties” to put on a shirt and tie to write copy.
I am looking forward to seeing a retooled Muse.
I liked this one, but change is a continuing process.
On the matter of skimpy research, journalists and bloggers alike are in no position to throw stones.
The power of a blog lies in the fact that readers can give us feedback from all angles which tends to eliminate the errors of writing in an echo chamber where all of our associates share the same biases.
We don’t have to agree with our critics, but at least they know they are heard. You can even think of your commenters as an early warning system.
Doug,
I like your blog the way it is. It shows the softer side of the Capitol Hill Blue founder and ranter.
For me, my blog is a forum to write about what interests me. Hopefully, if I do that, the passion I feel will come through. The challenge is to use the written word to do it in a way that is interesting for others to read. I think you use your photography that way.
I let my self be inspired by other people’s blogs but not get too pulled by what they are doing. I try to stay true to my own style and voice and hopefully blogging gives me a training ground to get better at that. I also have to accept that many may not be interested in my blog. Hopefully, enough will to make the work it takes to maintain seem worthwhile.
I love the diversity of that blogs present. Everyone is at their own level, hopefully learning as they go.
Maybe you just need a few days off and will come back more refreshed, changes or not.
Doug, I really hope you continue to talk about yourself from time to time.. It is very important to me and I think, to other readers of Capitol Hill Blue to get a real idea of just who the hell is writing these stories.. Several years ago, you issued a retraction and vowed you’d move heaven and earth to make sure you never had to issue another one.. Recently, you ordered a complete re-examination of years of stories in order to make certain that CHB held to the highest standards of journalism.. That is the action you took.. People who read Blue Ridge Muse know the other reason WHY we continue to take personal inventory, and if something is not right, WHY we promptly admit it.. That leads to more confidence in your ability and integrity..
And on a personal level, I identify a lot with you and genuinely like to hear about what’s going on with you and yours.. Really..
Good luck on blog redesign. But I leave you with a thought: with familiarity comes ease of use (not to mention the proverbial contempt, which I think you must have found…). I find that one of the reasons reading blogs is so enjoyable is that I know how just about all of them are laid out. I guess we could make books read back to front, or newspapers read middle to back then front… I dunno, but then again, let’s see how this turns out. USA Today brought us color pictures and one-story-per-page. Go fer it.