An Andrew Sullivan video is making the rounds among people who blog. So I offer it to readers of On-Ramp as a reflection on what I/we do.
In case you don't know, Sullivan is a distinguished blogger who works for The Atlantic.
Give his five-minute web video a look. I'd sum it up by saying that blogging is forcing journalistic writing in a more spontaneous direction. But is spontaneous the right word?
Maybe I should say glib. Incomplete. Imperfect. Developing. Mutating!!!
Writing a news story or a feature story used to be a business of trying to get the story right. Get it as correct and perfect as possible so future readers can access your station's/newspaper's archive and see your story as an enduring and authoritative document.
Bloggers take a different view. They see their blog post as one in a stream of stories that change as new information comes available and opinions change. It's something you write or say in the moment. This seems to suggest that it's no big a deal if you get something wrong or leave something out.
If I sound ambivalent about this blogging philosophy, I am. I still think journalists need to be accurate and thorough. But listen to Sullivan and let me know what YOU think by leaving behind a comment.
