The Bloggerist Speaks

I've wanted to work in the media since I was 14 and started spinnin' jams at my high school radio station. From there it was my college newspaper, radio station, local TV station, and campus magazine. I took Journalism to the max.

But while my formal Journalism education stirred my curiosity and reinforced my idealistic nature, there was too much uncertainty in a field that paid and respect were low--uncertainty about my future and the future of Journalism.

So there I was, melancholy in the Motor City, three months after graduation and only a secretary job(albeit at a media buying company) to show for my education, I was left wondering if this was the right field for me. The only Journalism jobs that I could get were in small towns and I had my mind set on the city life. I'm just not a country girl, honey! Yeah, I don't speak like that.

So four months later, employed at a search engine marketing firm as a Copywriter in Chicago, I wondered where my quest for truth had gone. The allure of Journalism was still there, but the glamor was gone, and even in the past few years, the meaning of Journalism has changed. What is Journalism? It used to be Walter Crokite behind a desk using an authoritative voice that told listeners, "I know what I'm talking about. I'm a big wig." Now blogging and Journalism have merged and submerged and diverged. Who really knows what Journalism is.

I am just about finished with Seth Godin's "Meatball Sundae." http://www.squidoo.com/meatballsundae
He has a totally fresh take on "new marketing." He doesn't really focus on how new marketing techniques affect Journalism, but he does talk a lot about blogs and how these new avenues of communication can bring together companies and consumers. There's more direct communication that ever before. I think the same can be said of Journalism. Now readers can question and interact with the text in front of them. Consequently, Journalism is changing, perhaps for the better.

In J-School, we debated whether bloggers are journalists. Don't you need formal education to be a journalist? Should there be an exam? I would like to think my education means something. But Journalists are the same at their core. Journalists are storytellers. If you can tell a story about people, something true, something real, then you are a journalist.

So Journalist, blogger, bloggerist, tell a story, tell the truth or as much as you can and new journalism will allow the reader to decide if they buy it or not.