I love Mashable. It’s probably my favorite blog on social media and technology, and yes, I’m not ashamed to say that the fact that the oh-so handsome Pete Cashmore is the founder and head of Mashable does play a SMALL, small role in why I love it.
But Mashable, from what its founder says, is doing very well. Take a look at what Pete Cashmore has to say about the success of his blog. He makes the act of making money on the internet so easy.
Is Pete leaving something out? Or is this business model only applicable to smaller staffed sites? Could a similar model be applied to newspapers?
I slightly regret my last post on why I dislike blogging. Even more so I regret publishing it on TNTJ — a VERY public place — for all to see. I don’t love blogging, yes, but I will always do it. Maybe not everyday like some, but for at least as long as I can tell. Why? I’m not exactly sure but after hanging out with a childhood friend of mine Rich Abdill, who just started an online journalism blog called Burning Type, I was inspired by his grand ideas for his blog. As a result, I have felt like nothing short of a quitter for publishing my last post — as if telling the world publicly that blogging is just “too hard, so I’m giving up.”
It was lame and I’m embarrassed. It’s also not the real reason why I temporarily became disgusted by the idea of blogging.
My change of heart over blogging has been a slow process. It began after attending a few online journalism conferences in the spring when, after meeting several bloggers in person that I thought I respected, I became nothing short of left down. Too many of them were neurotic, know-it-alls. I’m talking about the college journalists here. Not the Jeff Jarvis’s, Jay Rosen’s of the world, who have – in my opinion – every reason to be overly self-assured.
However, when people in my age group start to think that they have nothing new to learn about journalism or the way the media industry works, I can’t help but feel completely irritated. Younger people know a lot more about new media and the internet than older people. Yes, I believe that. However, few of us are in a position where we are able to lecture older people about what they know or don’t know about the industry they’ve worked in for so many years. It’s insulting and unprofessional.
I was afraid I was getting lumped into that same category of these types of bloggers and I wanted absolutely no part of it. I saw — time and time again — older journalists attempt to lessen the arrogance of some of these younger bloggers only to be insulted in return. I was humiliated to be apart of such a group. So, I retreated, trying to find what I wanted to do, what I wanted to say and how I would be different.
I’ve decided that the fear of sounding like these people should be no reason to stop. I can assure you there will be times that I will sound like a know-it-all, but believe me when I say that I’m definitely still figuring it out. I’m not going to attempt to mislead people. I’m no expert. I’m not a leader in this field. I’m just a girl with an interest in online journalism, new media, and in particular social media. My opinion on one theory could change when I learn of newer one on the next day. I’m 21. That’s what 21 is all about, right?
My internship is almost complete and I’ll soon be back in the swing of things as I start up my final year of college. As a result, I will be taking advantage of the time I will have and will be blogging – completely and totally committed this time. Hopefully, there’s still someone out there who is willing to figure things out along with me.
Paul Bradshaw, creator of Online Journalism Blog and Senior Lecturer in Online Journalism, Magazines and New Media at Birmingham City University’s (UK) School of Media agreed to partake in a short interview about the status of online journalism. Here’s what he said…
What got you interested in online journalism?
I used to edit Internet Monthly magazine, which meant spending most of my time looking at websites, talking about websites, or trying to find out about websites, and I guess that gave me an understanding of the possibilities of the medium for journalism. [Read more...]
Mindy McAdams is a professor at the University of Florida, where she teaches courses in online journalism. Her book “Flash Journalism: How to Create Multimedia News Packages” was published by Focal Press in April 2005.
She lived in Malaysia for eight months in 2004 and 2005, teaching and doing research as a Fulbright Scholar. In 2008 she taught two courses about online journalism for Vietnamese journalists in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Before moving to Florida, she was the Web strategist at the American Press Institute and lived in Washington, D.C. In 1994, she was the first content developer at Digital Ink, The Washington Post’s first online newspaper. Prior to that, she was a copy editor for 11 years. She worked on the Metro desk at The Washington Post and at Time magazine in New York. [Read more...]
