LJWorld.com

Blogging is a very effective tool for reporters, but should be used with caution. I am of the school of thought that believes blogging helps create a more personal link between reader and reporter and has the potential to enhance credibility, but reporters must be weary of their opinion corrupting the facts. While blogs may offer the chance for reporter to become more than simply talking heads, they must remember to stay true to factual reporting and offer a reliable blog for news-seekers to obtain information. With so many blogs and so many people offering opinions and facts, it is difficult to know what is truth and what is just someone typing to hear something rattle. There is a relationship between news providers and their audiences and when offered the opportunity to hear more opinion and voice, it strengthens the bond and allows the audience to view the news provider as a real person.

I checked out a couple staff blogs on the LJWorld site. For the most part, the blogs offer space for story expansion rather than opinion. I particularly enjoyed Mark Fagan's Wheel Genius blog because it offered a personal spin on some transportation issues, whether hard hitting or not. As a news seeker, it is nice to attach some personality to the names I read in the byline every morning. But these are approved blogs found through the company Web site.

A post in Bloggasm (http://bloggasm.com/44-of-newspapers-wouldnt-allow-staff-writers-to-blog-during-free-time-without-prior-approval), a blog by Simon Owens, deals with this very issue: should newspapers allow reporters to keep personal blogs without prior newspaper approval? His research showed that 44 percent of newspapers polled would not allow unapproved blogging by reporting staff. Opinions are important, but the fact of the matter is, as a professional journalist, you must show some amount of professionalism. When you agree to work for a company, you agree that you will not work for a competing company. Is freelance opinion blogging flirting with the competition? Sure, if it takes away from your own credibility as a professional and also from your company.

It's a tricky situation for everyone involved. There is the right to free speech, one very familiar to all journalists, but there is also an expected amount of professionalism involved in having a serious career. Being a positive role model and encouraging the company's business should be a priority (after all, newspaper is a business) and there should be pride in what you do. Is it worth tarnishing the fair and balanced work of reporting the news--a journalistic value-- to simply voice your opinion on a topic? We are all required to take a journalism ethics course as undergraduates. The course culminates in creating our own code of ethics. Mine included core values like equality, loyalty, compassion, honesty and truthfulness--values I try to apply to all aspects of my life, especially my professional life. Reporters should have a personal code of ethics and should apply it to their personal and professional lives. Whether or not personal blogging is explicitly mentioned in a professional contract, a reporter should always ask him or herself if what impact his or her actions has on image. It is important to be what you believe; cliche alert: to practice what you preach.

It is evident that I champion technology and believe that applying its capabilities to better news-gathering is important to the future of news. Blogging falls in that vein. Blogging for reporters is an excellent way to expand on a story or offer a personal take, but maintaining a balance is key. Just as reporters should maintain a balance while reporting, they should maintain a balance while blogging.

Pepsi recently released an iPhone application to promote their Amp energy drink. The application, called "Amp up before you score" allows users to typify a possible female mate and offers "useful" information and pick-up lines to lure the female in. Once users have been successful by employing the information offered in the app, they have the opportunity to share their success stories, or brag, to their friends via twitter, facebook, or email. Using the Amp name, of course. New age target marketing at it's finest. This article on mashable by Adam Ostrow (http://mashable.com/2009/10/12/amp-before-you-score/) discusses the app and starts a conversation with readers about whether this application and marketing by Pepsi is alienating to female Pepsi fans. But what is really interesting about this case is how successful the advertising campaign is.

Personally, I think the application is excellent marketing. A good friend of mine, who had found out about the application because it was a trending topic on twitter, posted a link to the above article on my facebook wall with the tag "hahahahaha" so I read the article and I installed the application on my iPhone. It was free and I wanted to see for myself what all the hubbub was about. I laughed for half an hour. Honestly, the only part that really got me even remotely riled up was the fact that you could keep a list of girls and share your successes like the girls are trophies. But there was a lot of truth in the stereotypes. The app is meant to be entertaining and serve as an advertising vessel, not a legitimate dating tool. After reading a lot of negative feedback on both the comments section of the article and twitter, I thought I would ask people close to me what they thought about the app and its negative suggestions. Oddly, many of the men I asked were more appalled than the women. But everyone noted that it was so ridiculous that it was impossible for anyone to take seriously. Yes, some of the stereotypes are offensive but someone who takes it seriously is missing the point of the advertising.

Other comments said that if the advertisers were catering to a female audience or provided a female version of a similar sexist theme, no one would be upset. Well, iPhone has similar applications that cater to a more female audience. This article on ABCNews (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/iphone-app-puts-sleaze-detector-pocket/story?id=8653776) discusses the application. Is it on the same level as the AMP Up Before You Score app? It certainly has a more serious theme and seems to imply a similarly, misanthropic, if not misandristic, nuance. But users aren't demanding Sleaze Detector be recalled.

Twitter's role in all of this was intrinsic to the advertising plan. Pepsi launched the controversial advertising application, AMP became a trending topic so Pepsi apologized via tweet (http://mashable.com/2009/10/12/pepsi-and-amp-app/) and suggested consumers provide feedback. And here we are, discussing AMP energy drink. Successful marketing? Absolutley. Using social networking Web sites for extra promotional emphasis. Flawless. The power of twitter never ceases to amaze me.

"To be a journalist is to bear witness. The rest is no more than ornamentation. To bear witness means being there--and that's not free. No search engine gives you the smell of a crime, the tremor in the air, the eyes that smolder, or the cadence of a scream."

Roger Cohen penned these words in response to Twitter as a journalistic tool. His column in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/opinion/10iht-edcohen.html) he discusses bearing witness and the impossibility of bearing witness through social media.

Bearing witness is to carry on a legacy. What immediately comes to mind are the books Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B DuBois and All But My Life by Gerda Weiss Klein--books we must read in Western civilization class to carry on a legacy, to bear witness to the events, the oppression, the crimes--the smolder and screams echoing from the pages and become alive in our minds. If we can bear witness from the pages of books, why can't we bear witness from youtube videos and tweets? It's a new kind of bearing witness. Some of the senses are removed but you're still in the heat of the recorded moment as it unravels, linked to visual images--whether still or video, and offered real emotion and opinion from those who are there or also following the event from afar. (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-09-22-social-networking-real-time-web_N.htm?csp=usat.me) Through the immediacy of social media, you can still experience the event through twitter, still bear witness to the event in an atypical way.

I argue that twitter is a new brand of journalism-- a reduced, crack cocaine type of reporting. It is incomplete, raw, cheap and dirty--but journalism, yes.

A couple of fluffy personal examples: every Saturday, I have to work, so I miss the football game. It's terrible, I know. So I keep updated on the game regularly by following what my friends and local news organizations have to say on Twitter. I would say it feels like I'm at the game. I hear about each successful play, the man in front of my friend who spilled contraband beer on her shoes, the guy in the student section a couple rows down who punched another student, the halftime show...the list goes on. I can practically smell the stale popcorn.

When the fights broke out on campus between the KU football and basketball teams, I heard about it first on twitter only a few minutes after it happened from people who were there. The tweets were just as accurate, just as meaningful, as the articles in the paper the next day. In fact, it was easier to understand the outrage and confusion of the community from the tweets than from the articles.

Even further removed example: I follow John Mayer on twitter and have been working on a project for a journalism class that involves documenting mentions in the media of a celebrity. Often, Mayer tweets about his up-coming album and the process. It has been interesting to follow the artist process and experience the album with Mayer (and a million of his closest twitter friends). Now, I understand this example is a little stretched, but it still serves as evidence that twitter allows users to bear witness to events without physical involvement.

Ultimately, seeing is the purest form of bearing witness--of being a journalist and living the experience to share with others--but technology allows us to come so close to being there, it is impossible to say that the only form of bearing witness is seeing.

Chi-Town Daily editor Geoff Dougherty writes about the future of the Chi-Town Daily News (http://www.chitowndailynews.org/blogs/Ravings_from_the_editor/Some_news_about_the_Daily_News,32359): a for-profit news Web site. The goal of the site is to maintain a high level of transparency within local government set by the non-profit Daily News by offering a resource to enable community members to share local stories and neighborhood concerns...for profit. According to an article (http://chicago.decider.com/articles/update-chitown-daily-news-lays-off-reporters-emplo,32787/) posted on the A.V. Chicago Web site, Dougherty championed the non-profit newspaper business model. While it was an unavoidable move on the Daily's part to keep from shutting its doors forever, it is incredibly unfortunate that our economy can't support organizations that serve a public good.

I work for a non-profit organization on campus. It provides a really great service for the blind community of Kansas, and helps other similar services across the country. Through the support of many kind volunteers and an annual fundraiser, the organization thrives, even in times of economic downturn. It seems that many non-profits in Kansas are doing well. According to www.volunteeringinamerica.gov ,Kansas is one of the top rated states for volunteering, and of the Lawrence population, nearly half volunteer. Kansas City is also in the top rated cities listed on the Web site. Unfortunately, states like New York, California, Florida and Texas--places with large numbers of the nation's population--fall in the bottom of these ratings. Even Illinois is in the lower third of the states.

So if volunteering seems to stay steady, why are some organizations failing while numbers rise? In an article printed in USA Today written earlier this summer, the types of volunteering hours being logged are not with traditional organizations. Numbers spiked in attendance of community meetings or helping neighbors with a problem. Where you can't give money, it is important to give time. Many major players in non-profit organizations are now taking advantage of their own organzations' services. In ensuring these organizations stay afloat, we ensure that the services are available when and if we need them. Now, more than ever, it is important to be compassionate.

It is a hot July afternoon and I am running errands in my air-conditioner-less car. The light turns red and I curse as I slow to a stop, I'm already sweaty and ready to get home. I pull out my phone while I wait for the light to change. I open the Twitter application and a couple of friends have tweeted since I last checked. "TMZ reports Michael Jackson is dead. Can anyone else confirm?!?" reads one tweet. Wait, what? The light changes and I switch on the radio.They report Jackson had a heart attack but little else is known at that time. When I reach my destination, I whip out my handy, dandy phone to do some more research (my mother will be pleased that I waited until I was no longer operating a vehicle...) and discover that TMZ--and my Twitter-savvy friend--was correct. An American Icon had passed away suddenly. It was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. And I heard it first on Twitter.

It is amazing to me that within my lifetime the Internet has gone from a military tool to an everyday necessity for the average person; a living, breathing part of American Culture. I am connected everywhere I go to endless amounts of information. I admit right now I am the proud owner of an iPhone and love it more than life, at times. It could be said that I am, indeed, addicted to information.

The Internet is so pervasive that all lifestyles have been influenced. An article (http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/2009-09-03-early-shopping-bargains_N.htm) in USA Today reported that research that once happened on car lots is now happening online. Trips are planned, hotels booked via Web sites; textbooks, clothes, electronics, services: all purchased on the Internet. This is a phenomenon not at all foreign to my generation. We are a generation of convenience and immediacy. So it isn't such a stretch that we embrace social marketing Web sites like Facebook and Twitter as viable sources of information and services. In fact, we prefer it. I can price shop from the comfort of my own home. So advertisers and community members must adapt to this Web-based culture or order to stay competitive. It is a strange, faceless, convenient shift and traditional businesses feel compromised in the face of technological change. As discussed in a posting on the NewsCloud Blog (http://blog.newscloud.com/2009/08/evolution-of-community-newspapers-in-a-facebook-age.html) titled "The Evolution of Community Newspapers in the Age of Twitter and Facebook," the world is overloaded with information and news providers have to keep up. Community journalism must advance with the online culture. Of the last 10 Web sites you've visited, how many have advertised their Facebook pages or requested you follow them on Twitter? I'd guess most, if not all, of them. And it's working. Social marketing Web sites are incredibly influential. In a recent article published in Independent School, author Lorrie Jackson describes a situation where students base attendance to schools on the school's Facebook page and comments. The Minnesota Daily (http://apps.facebook.com/mndaily/) offers points as a reward for users who participate in the Facebook community by posting stories, sharing stories with friends and inviting friends to the application. Communities grow and learn, the organization is paid through advertisements. It sounds like a traditional business model to me, simply the technology has changed.

I am nearing the end of my undergraduate career. I'm sad and reflective--like any good senior--and take any opportunity I can to chafe inwardly about the things I have learned (and, indeed, what I have yet to learn). A recent article in Vanity Fair by Matt Pressman about why the public hates journalists offered a golden opportunity for me to curl up in front of my keyboard and rehash the last four years in terms of how I've progressed, how I've regressed, and how these two emotional evolutionary concepts will play a role in my future as a member of the Fourth Estate.   There is no pleasing everyone. I will, inevitably, find ridiculing comments posted that nit-pick grammar, call me names, and mildly poke fun at my semi-limited vocabulary. Someone will have a problem with the things I say and the way I say them. It's fine. I was the kitchen manager for my scholarship hall not so long ago. I applied for the position because--aside from free room and board--I felt that I could govern the kitchen better than the then current management. I learned within the first week that no matter what I did to provide for everyone, someone was still unhappy. It was rarely truely my fault, but I was an easy scapegoat for the real problem. It is that perpetually thickening skin that is possibly the best continued education for my field. I'm not saying that in order to succeed in this business, journalists must be cold and unfeeling; I'm simply saying the best way to continue forward is to learn to brush your shoulders off.   It is necessary to educate yourself. Each person has his or her own background, brings his or her own experiences to the proverbial table and offers insight with these biases. It is possible to do your own research on a topic. There's this thing called the Internet--it's incredible and teeming with information you can't even imagine. Use it. Learn all you can in order to fully understand the situation. By simply gathering information from one source--one opinion, one other person's research--readers set themselves up for ignorance and disgust for journalism. As a green journalist, I can tell you that the best piece of advice journalism professors offer is to get as many different sources as humanly possible. I encourage all readers to do the same. You fear the bleeding-hearted liberal media is spinning the story to display the Republican party in a poor light? Does right-wing nut job journalism get you so riled up you can't read the newspaper in the morning? Check your facts, do your own research, try and be unbiased and see what you come up with.   Anyone can do what we do, we just have a certain panache for sticking words together in a coherant manner--most of the time--and it's that flair that pays the bills. Many new technologies lend themselves to grassroots journalistic movements. Blogging, for example, is an excellent way to voice your opinion and share your research. The fascinating sport of blogging can be as accurate--often times more so--as newspapers because the bloggers are real people living the event. In school, whenever we were assigned a research paper, first hand sources were touted as the most accurate because these authors recorded the events as they occurred. I'm not trying to derogate the accuracy of professional journalists simply because they may or may not have been there to witness the event, I'm merely trying to encourage everyone to contribute. Journalism is the lifeblood of democracy.

And now I hesitate. Even after spouting about thick skins and free information and grassroots community journalism, I'm still reasonably uneager to hit the submit button, knowing perfectly well that once I've sent my thoughts out into the world, I am unable to retract them. Each journalist should be praised for unabashedly displaying his or her heart for everyone to see. Whether you agree or disagree with the author, you must admit, allowing the world to criticize your work takes some guts.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The Pioneer Cemetery on West Campus is the final resting place to many important past KU faculty and chancellors. It is the oldest cemetery in Lawrence.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The buffalo statue is located beside Clinton Parkway amid prairie grass. Graffiti artists use the buffalo as a canvas. Around the holidays, the buffalo is decorated in festive attire.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... Pinkney Elementary is one of the oldest elementary schools in Lawrence. Langston Hughes is one of it's former pupils.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The KU Boathouse in Burcham Park. We should get extra points for survival on this one. A man sitting in an unmarked van looked us over as we ran toward the boathouse. We made note of his license plate as we left. The KU Boathouse houses the KU Women's rowing team.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The Union Pacific Depot is found in North Lawrence. It used to function as an operational train station but now is the Lawrence Visitors Center.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The bandstand in South Park is a popular location for weddings and other gatherings. Scott and I played with some kids who climbed into one of the many trees found in the park.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The ATSF Locomotive 1073 is located in Buford M. Watson Park. Often, the cabin is open for children and visitors to explore.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... Clinton, Kansas used to be located where the lake now exists. Now, residents and visitors can enjoy the swimming beach or take their boats out for a cruise.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The mural in Hobbs Park can be found on the back of the baseball diamond seating. The mural depicts the "history and continued spirit of the East Lawrence neighborhood and it's people."

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The Missile in Centennial Park. Using Scott and me as reference points, you can better understand the height of the structure.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The former #4 fire station was once a stop on the historic Underground Railroad. Scott and I are representing the number four.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The oldest still-standing building is found in North Lawrence. The traffic was horrendous getting out there because of some long overdue construction to the underpass, but the El Matador was worth the trek.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The giant metal sphere beside the Marriott Suites. Apparently it used to make paper, but Scott and I think it looks a little like an underwater mine.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... Central Junior High School, formally Liberty Memorial High School. Scott thought it was ghetto but I was glad to be back at my alma mater. Interesting side note: Central was where I first discovered my love of journalism by writing for the Central newspaper!

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The Watkins Community Museum: where you can learn about Lawrence and enjoy the aroma of Papa Keno's Pizza next door.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The Amtrack station is an operational train station. We're pretty sure we saw the beginnings of a drug deal occur. http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... Scott and I found a cool train to play on while we took a break from our Lawrence photo shoot.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The Bowersock Dam is located on the Kaw river. There have been several accidents near the area and trespassing is prohibited. Scott and I kept our distance.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The children's wading pool in South Park. The pool used to have a seal water feature in the middle but was renovated in 2001 and replaced the seal with a sunflower. It is a popular attraction for young kids in the sweltering Kansas heat.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... This plain water-tower can be found in northwest Lawrence. Someone should paint Lawrence's name on it because it's visible from far away.

http://media.lawrence.com/img/blogs/e... The plow found at 27th and Inverness. Scott isn't pictured because I sent him on a mission to kill all of the snakes in the field. He was successful.