WAG - No, Mom.
I'm not zoning out class to write this.
When your Media Basics (online journalism) instructor is in Belgrade, many would think class would be cancelled.
Many would be wrong.
Today, our sub has given us a history lesson on blogging (going back to 1997) and directed us to write stuff on-line.
Thus, this is not slacking off. This is doing real work.
Above was the initial post written to please the visiting teacher. He started the class with a slideshow of our instructor in Belgrade - showing group photos of people gathered around computers ("they look just like you all; expect they're Serbian"), some bombed out remains left over from the NATO strikes of the 90s, foreign graffiti and advertisements, and bar crawling shots.
Then, after a rundown of the recent surge in online activity, we were all spurned on to quickly start a page - if we hadn't already.
The class slowly, a bit relunctantly, got into gear. I simply opened my existing site and jotted down the previously mentioned text. When it came time for people to show their work, it was quiet. Searching for volunteers, and remembering I'd mentioned I'd had a blog site earlier in the class period, I was singled out.
"What's your site?"
"The World According to Gap."
And after a bit of typing, there my (this) site was standing 8 x 12 feet in front of me.
It's a bit weird seeing your site projected on the jumbo screen of the classroom as an example. Of course, after over 2 years of doing this (sorry for not having a blog birthday post), you'd think I'd have some sort of handle on the subject.
Of course, when asked the question, "Is this journalism?" the class became stumped.
Note: With a sub there often are lots of pregnant pauses, but this was longer than usual.
We were cajoled to speak with comments like "Co'mon! You're jounalism students. You're not shy!" or "You've been going to the J-school all this time and you can't answer this question?"
The debate finally did start, but I'm still not sure of the answer. This site gives me a chance to practice writing, keep family members updated, and let me stand on soap box issues that would never make it in the paper (like, what's up with urban squirrels these days?) - but is any of that news? Is it reporting?
My feeling now, after staring at the screen and copying to churn out a moral after the teacher has left and the computer lab has mostly cleared out (after briefly chastizing myself for the grossly repetitive use of the word "after"), I think the definition of journalism is changing.
Yesterday, for my Brit. lit. class, I was reading about the origins of newspapers (starting with letters, then lists of recent events, pamplets, and later branching out into weekly and daily papers before spawning magazines). In the 1700s, they couldn't have imagined radio, network news, cable TV, satelite broadcasting. Why should I be woried about the fact 20 years ago, people would have had difficulty expecting people to turn to digital zeros and ones to get their news.
Is this journalism?
Yes.
Is this top tier stuff?
No.
Somewhere between the yellow press of the early 1900s and the Pulitzers is where this posting is at. I'm sorry I can't get any more specific than that for now.
If I can narrow it down a bit, though, I'll let you now.
Now I have to split so I don't end up missing the start of my creative writing class, and thus, making the original title of this post incorrect.
'Journalize_this'
