Joe Gullo

Every journalism student should have their own blog either hosted on their own website or on another host. Why? Well blogging, if used correctly can be a great outlet to help build your writing skills. Journalism relies heavily on the ability to be able to write and write well. You need to be able to draw people into your stories and keep your viewers and readers interested throughout the entire story. Practice makes perfect, the more you write the better you become!

An alumni came to talk to one of my communication classes a couple of weeks ago. He worked with a local station near the college, WPTZ before going off to work for another station in Connecticut and then WABC. He also worked for Regis and Kathy Lee. He stressed the importance of being a good writer and being good at what you do.

Writing is important in journalism. I took a class at Lyndon State College called Introduction to Broadcast Journalism where my teacher stressed the importance of being able to write well and fast. Sometimes you will not have time to sit, think, edit and write your work. Sometimes you have five minutes to write a piece and get it on the air. No one is going to wait for you to finish the story. If it’s not done in five minutes then what you have is what you have. Writing fast and well is especially critical when writing for breaking news pieces. Stations take stride in being able to be the first news station to cover and break a breaking news story.

Blogging helps because it enables you to write and express your ideas. My goal is to write on my blog every day about something either relevant to journalism, something going on in my life, college – anything that can help me express myself. I feel this is a good outlet for expressing my views and opinions.

There may be some cons to writing blogs – especially online. Your views and opinions are open to everyone to see. As journalists we want to be as independent and unbiased as possible. Some future employers may look at your blog and not like what they see. Some stations and employers may not want you to blog once you get employed. I personally feel that the pros outweigh the cons. Blogging is a part of our culture and more and more blogs are popping up over the web. Journalists need to know how to use this to their advantage. I think writing is too important and technology is too important in our field not to blog.

If you’re looking to start your own blog you can use the following blog platforms:

» Wordpress

» Blogger

» Tumblr

» Posterous

Aside from building your writing experience, blogging can also help you build knowledge of the web. The internet is changing our field and we need to know how to use it. Journalism is not just going on air and doing a piece; it’s also putting it on the web. Some journalists even blog. Knowing how to use the web will give you an advantage. I posted an article on how I felt social media was changing our field. Use the internet – it won’t hurt you.

What’s your opinions on this?