Why he Blogs, I Blog, too.

Just about every journalist gets the daily e-mail from Florida’s Poytner Institute. Their slogan “everything you need to be a better journalist” is a good characterization of how useful the site and the organization has and continues to be for many working in the media. Their daily e-mails, especially one called “Romenesko”, is chock-full of links and articles and tidbits of information about what’s happening and changing in the field. And nowadays, it’s lots.

As Blogs take more and more hold on the mainstream media landscape, I often wondered how my experience of determining what and what not to write about on this Blog corresponded to others who were writing on a Blog, especially those who now did as part of a new job requirement. There’s also a fair number of journo-Bloggers in my Blogroll who just do it because they want to.

So, it was good to run across this article from Poytner’s Chip Scanlan which pretty much sums up why I Blog. Reading it I thought I almost was reading my own reasons and I began to feel more comfortable about what I was doing here. Report This! is an experiment, to say the least. One that scares me half the time (for fear of which future editor might be reading it), and delights me the other times (because I can express myself and, according to my hit counter, somebody actually reads it).

So, I thought I’d share this. I appreciate Chip for being so frank in his reasons and helping me realize they are some of my own. Lowered expectations, my ability to see something, then write about it. Freedom, ah, glorious freedom. And I can get un-stuck from my doldrums and write about something I care about and get it out of me. Then, I can move on. This Blogging is cool stuff.