Blogs are for Reporters
Last week when I was in town hanging flyers for the April Spoken Word Night, I saw an interesting scene. Two workers were laying a new sidewalk in between the old Rake’s mansion property and the new Village Green site and leading to the Hotel Floyd construction. It looked like an elaborate production. I was curious about how a sidewalk was built, so I pulled my car into the Village Green parking lot to get a better look.
Over the last two years of blogging, I feel like I’ve been gradually earning the right to indulge my natural curiosity. As a blogger, I don’t go out without my camera. It’s sort of like having a press pass, and recently I’ve been getting more comfortable with taking photos and not worrying what people think (and believe me, with some of the things I snap photos of, I get more than a few stares).
When I’m out, I’m not consciously looking for news. I’m drawn to what is interesting or out of place, whether it’s a bright red cup in the middle of a grassy field or a newly constructed sidewalk where there wasn’t one the day before.
The first few stories I sold to the Floyd Press last year were initially interest driven blog entries. The first one was about two travelers sitting in front of the town courthouse with a sign that read “Want to Talk Politics?” In that case, a fellow blogger called me to suggest that it might make a good story. The second piece I wrote was a review of a play about the life of a historical Appalachian midwife. As I was writing it, I knew it would adapt well to local news, and after that piece I paid more attention to blog entries that might have that kind of application.
I didn’t fill out a job application to write for the Floyd Press. I just approached the editor and told her that since retiring from full-time foster care I was writing a lot and would like to float stories by her for possible publication from time to time. It was a natural progression to what I was already doing. She looked over that first piece as I spoke and nodded her head. “It’s good … conversational,” she said.
Bloggers can be an extra pair of eyes and ears for news reporters, covering stories that might otherwise go unnoticed. All of the seasoned bloggers in our small town of Floyd interface with the local paper in one way or another. Fred at Fragments from Floyd does a regular column, A Road Less Traveled; Doug at the Blue Ridge Muse (the real journalist among us) covers local sports and county government; and some of David’s Ripples blog posts have also appeared in the Press.
In a recent editorial, the Floyd Press editor thanked local citizens for contributing news to the paper. She was also interested in using the photo I took of the new sidewalk being built (which appeared in the Press on April 5th)
Post note: Blogs are for Storytellers HERE.
April 10th, 2007 10:15 am
Not only are we an extra set of eyes and ears but we are credited with keeping people straight! More and more TV shows are reaching out to bloggers for feedback. Whether it be Idol or politics. They can get a good feel for middle America by our blogs. Plus we can call people on things that are wrong. For instance if we see something done wrong in the polling sites. We should feel important.
April 10th, 2007 11:08 am
After I started blogging I noticed that writing was in my mind all the time. It made me begin thinking about things differently, really noticing and examining in a way I never had before. It’s like acquiring another set of eyes.
April 10th, 2007 11:34 am
Me too. One of the upsides to blogging is that it has made me pay more attention to everything. The downside is that I find myself crafting and organizing sentences even in my sleep! But then again, it has given me something constructive to do with my ongoing internal dialouge and has allowed me to tap into that spring of endless words.
April 10th, 2007 1:13 pm
I enjoy blogging (and news reporting, which is my day job), but I was only last night lamenting the loss of my “journal” – that notebook where I wrote things like “I am having a lousy day” and why. I don’t, generally speaking, do that on my blog because I think other people would find it boring and tedious. Unless there is a story behind it I try to keep it offline. But with writing as a my livelihood, and a blog (and a website or two), I long ago abandoned that little diary. I wonder what we’re losing while we’re all baring our souls?
April 10th, 2007 1:38 pm
I too am rarely out with out my camera. One just never knows what one might see. 🙂
April 10th, 2007 2:56 pm
I don’t write in my journal journal much anymore. Now I keep a composition notebook for real notes, ones that are unreadable to even me if I don’t get them typed fast enough. I feel like my blog is my record now, where for years it was my longhand journal. At this point, knowing my blog is public, I try to elevate most of my smaller issues into larger more universal ones. I think it helps even me to do that. There are so many pros and cons to computer writing. We might be trading the quickness and quantity of emails for the quality of letter writing.
April 10th, 2007 6:46 pm
Yay, sidewalks are exciting. That’s sounds amazingly sarcastic but I really do think they are some of the most amazing things that we put onto the ground. I havea realy appreciation for them, living in the city and all.
April 10th, 2007 6:53 pm
I can’t always take my camera places I would like… at least not the new one my brother gave me for Christmas. But there is always a small pocket sized one in my purse. It is less noticeable and can still catch moments in time. I don’t know if I’ve ever known a reporter before.
April 11th, 2007 4:46 am
I know what you are talking about Colleen…I too have my camera with me at all times….And everything becomes a possible blog entry…No one is paying me for this but that’s okay. I am enjoying myself tremendously. LOVE that picture of the sidewalk being built!
April 11th, 2007 8:47 am
citizen journalism is a very big deal at newspapers these days. I have a friend who gets paid to blog about Loudon county.