BLOGOSPHERECREATING AND WRITING BLOGS

Sept. 16, 2009

CREATING A BLOGROLL

First, invite classmates and myself to your blog as readers Open up your blogger.com accounts

Using the email addresses on this list invite students to your blog by adding their names to your blog

On your dashboard, click on “settings.” In “settings” click on “permissions” Click on “only people I choose.” Add the email names of the students from this list as

well as me: fwarner@umich.edu Hit “add readers” This sends invites to other students NOTE: you must accept the invitation sent to your

email address or you will not be able to access the blogs.

ADDING YOUR BLOG TO A BLOGROLL

Add your blog to the course website Go to the course website

www.sitemaker.umich.edu/blogosphere and click on “Our Blogosphere.” You should have editing functions

Cut and paste the URL for your blog onto the page…now highlight the URL and click on the “link” button…you are creating a link…remember to save and preview.

Check your link

Now you are ready to blog…and ready for your blog to be read…which is a primary goal of blogging.

SO HOW DO I GET STARTED?

“The story matters more than the medium you tell it in, or put more bluntly, “It’s the content, stupid.”

But how do you get multi-tasking news consumers interested in your content over another piece of content? How do you persuade your classmates that they should read your blog besides the prof says you have to. What could you use?

Twitter, Facebook, text messages? Great headlines Video Photos

WHY A SUCCESSFUL BLOG IS DIFFICULT…

We used to live in a world of scarcity of content and longer attention spans.

Today we live in a world of overwhelming amounts of content and shorter and shorter attention spans.

So what is it about the blogs you read that caught your attention…or didn’t. Did anything really catch your attention about

the blogs you read in Ultimate Blogs?

WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL BLOG LOOKS LIKE?

Read blogs, either in Ultimate Blogs, or the tens of millions on the Web. Favorite blogs?

Refer to Course Readings post: How to write a blog guidelines

SO WHAT’S YOUR BLOG? WHAT’S YOUR 30-SECOND ELEVATOR PITCH?

GETTING STARTED ON A BLOG

Class exercise Tell me about one thing about yourself How would we tell your story—print, video,

audio, graphics, photos?

Print gives you depth and detail Video gives you immediacy, life, passion, voice Audio gives you immediacy, voice, detail Graphics and photos add even deeper levels of

knowledge

GETTING STARTED ON A BLOG

Draft a mission statement—from “Writing Tools—50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer” by Roy Peter Clark Formed from a series of 850 word stories he wrote

about a woman whose husband was dying of AIDS. He wrote one story every day for a month…an

early form of blog journalism—29 stories in all. For each, he wrote a mission statement.

Readers want to taken through a story. They want you to have command of your story—so they don’t have to dig it out.

By writing a mission statement, you know where you want to go with your blog—instead of having aimless wandering rambles that say nothing—and give nothing to the reader.

YOUR MISSION STATEMENTS?

I want to? I care about? This makes me angry… This makes me intrigued…

SOME MORE BLOGGING TIPS Blogs are fodder for conversation Think about your audience—what do you

want us to know about you or about your topic?

Write a tight headline to generate interest Make points or bullets if you think that is

necessary Link if necessary Be active in your writing

FOR SEPT. 21, 2009

Lecture and Discussion“From Old to New Media—Is Traditional Journalism Still Relevant in the Age of the Blogosphere?

Please be current with your readings in “Elements of Journalism.”

Bring three comments from the readings to discuss in class. Be prepared to turn them in at the end of class

Blogging time in class

SEPT. 22, 2009

First blog due at 9 p.m. We will discuss the blogs in class on

Wednesday Sept. 23 before our guest lecture.

I will break you into blog reading circles that also will serve as your final working groups

If you have any reasons for why you do or do not want to work with someone in the class, send me an email.