Blogging the Media Blog

There are many approaches to writing a blog. One could simply say what is on one’s mind and let the world react to it. Another interesting approach is simply to provide readers with information one finds interesting. Alternately, one could try to offer some insights into an issue of some importance. For most people, the blog is the prefect place to rant. However, that is also the easiest way for complete strangers to know an awful lot about a given individual without ever meeting the person. Others seem to believe that one is relatively safe on the Internet and the blog merely informs people who cares to know where one is. I prefer reading blogs with fewer entries and more insights into the substantive issues of concern like the role of journalism in general in the modern world.

Terry Heaton, a broadcast journalist from the South (see link below), allows people to track his every movement around the country and the world. Given Heaton’s media credentials, one would expect Heaton to offer some insights into the role of journalists in the every-changing technological world of 21st Century. However, one would be disappointed with the type of information Heaton has to offer. He spent most of his blog talking about the entertainment world and the broadcast journalism. In one entry, he talks about the problem of football overrunning its time slot and explains why the viewing audience is not particularly pleased. In his opinion, Les Moonves should abandon football, if CBS was to compete with NBC or ABC. It is credible that a former news director in the South seems to enjoy ranting on the entertainment world and the ratings wars. It is like what I said in my second entry, there are bloggers and then there are bloggers. It is not one of those journalistic websites I will particularly care for.

First Draft by Tim Porter, a former editor for the San Francisco Examiner and the Richmond Independent (see link below), now tries to pursue quality journalism independently. He uses the blog principally as an advocacy tool to assist print journalism to survive in the 21st Century as just a print record of events, but as an information leader. He discusses how the newspaper could be more relevant and the conferences that focus on revitalizing the newspaper business. Unlike some people in the industry, he acknowledges the competition and the state of affairs within the paper industry. Now this is a blog that is worth reading.

First Draft by Tim Porter

Terry Heaton's Promo Blog