The Importance of Blogging in Journalism Today (August 2011)

Although blogging as been largely seen as an ‘opinion’ based source, the importance it has brought to the journalism industry is fast growing, especially for beginner journalists and well-established journalists in the field.

So firstly, what makes a good blog? After reading a few websites and forums on good blogging, I found the following:  According to the ProBlogger website (10 Tips For Writing A Blog Post) created by Darren Rowse, the first necessary ‘must’ is to be able to make your opinion known and blunt.

People enjoy reading blogs because they like to hear other people’s opinions on a certain matter or subject. If they wanted facts, they could pick up a newspaper or switch on a news channel. This is one of the beauties of blogging.

Darren Rowse believes that less is more. He states that a blogger should ‘give the maximum amount of information with the least amount of words’.  Time is precious and your readers are bound to be busy. A long winded blog post will bore the reader and they are likely to stop midway reading your blog and lose interest in what you have to say. He also claims that a blog post should not be more than 250 words. 

To Darren, the headline is vitally important; the ‘snappier’ the better. You want your reader’s attention grabbed by the first couple of words you have put onto the blog post. Besides the vitally important points made above by Darren, he believes that a blogger should identify a certain style of writing and stick to it, if you wish to gather a following of fans.  A blogger should also constantly edit their posts, ‘good writing is in the editing’, the website states. ‘Before you hit the submit button, re-read your post and cut out the stuff that you don’t need’. 

Besides creating a blog for a light read and the chance to express your creative writing style, blogging has a huge importance in the journalism world, especially for students and beginner journalists in the intimidating and fast-paced field. 

Robert Niles, a lecturer at USC Annenberg in the states and British journalist, Bill Thompson both agree that blogging is highly essential for journalism students and beginner journalists.  Niles believes that ‘that blogging gets students in the habit of writing and in a conversational style that effective journalism needs’. 

According to the website, News About the News, ‘all blogs are reaching a common goal, spreading information. This spreading of information is the focus of journalism today’.

Most lecturers or professors require their journalist students to create and update a blog, which prepares the students for their future careers. The blog teaches them about writing skills as well as certain writing styles, helping them to identify their niche and guide them through to their future careers. 

Paul Balerak, an American journalist started blogging in October 2004. Now, 7 years later, he believes that ‘blogging is now a part of the media mainstream. A viable source for news stories, gossip and opinions.’  Paul stated that blogging was a career -changer for him. It has provided him with work, training and a bit of money. Blogging has assisted Paul throughout his journalism career so far and continues to do so. 

No matter who starts a blog or what experience they acquire from continuously updating and creating blog posts, blogging has assisted the journalism field in more than one way. It’s now seen as a media source for journalists everywhere and it helps prepare future journalists for challenges they will face in their chosen career path.

Research:

Ten Tips For Writing A Blog Post by Darren Rowse

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/12/30/tens-tips-for-writing-a-blog-post/

The Importance Of Blogging In Journalism Education by Robert Niles

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/robert/931/

The Importance Of Blogging – News About The News Website

http://thenewsaboutthenews.blogspot.com/2011/01/importance-to-blogging.html

Blogging for Journalists by Adam Westbrook

http://adamwestbrook.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/blogging-week-1-why-journalists-must-blog-and-how/

Capetonians Utter Blunt Opinions On How Malema Should Be Dealt With (August 2011)

ANCYL president Julius Malema will know his fate when he appears at a disciplinary hearing tomorrow. 

Malema originally faced a possible expulsion from the ANC for ill-discipline. Along with Malema, Youth League Deputy-President Ronald Lamola, deputy secretary Kenetswe Mosenogi and treasurer general, Pule Mabe will also be facing the music.

Malema stated that he would remain a loyal supporter of the ANC, regardless of the hearing’s outcome.

This is the second disciplinary hearing Malema will be facing. 

Malema should be publicly executed and his wealth should be redistributed to underprivileged people. This is just one opinion expressed by one of the Capetonians canvassed in a survey this week. 

Yet another citizen interviewed suggested that he be removed from his position as the youth league leader and be appointed as ambassador to Afghanistan. 

A simple public stoning at the construction site of his new mansion with a small party afterwards was the opinion of another.

 ‘I think that if Malema is not suspended then it shows who holds the most influential power within the ANC. The ANC are using the support that Malema has accumulated to gain popularity among the poor majority, since they themselves have become a part of the elite who now rule the country and do not directly stand for the ideals of those who vote for them. In this case, however, justice has to be shown in order to show the people that the ANC will not put up with division within their party. Because, if they do then there is an apparent weakness which is out of their control and well then they're just screwed. But wait, they've been so since the beginning anyway’  stated a student. 

Story by Gemma-Louise Wright, edited by David Yutar (Practical Reporting lecturer)

Additional research:

Malema Ready For Hearing – News24.com, 27/08/2011

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Malema-ready-for-hearing-20110827

Can Web Journalism Replace Traditional Media? (August 2011)

Nowadays the internet has taken over and as a journalism student; I have been subjected to the evolution of news available online through assignments and practicals. I hardly read newspapers or magazines. When I need to find out about the latest news, I go straight to the internet and sometimes the news channels on DSTV because it is the quickest, cheapest and most efficient form. 

Although web journalism is taking the world by storm, I’m not so sure if it will entirely take over traditional media. As everyone in the profession knows, advertising placed in newspapers is what funds the publications and keeps them running. If online was to take over from traditional media, how would the journalists contributing to the online sector and the rest of the team stay afloat financially? Will journalists as a career choice die out and will citizen journalism take over? How reliable is that?

Although online journalism is winning the media race by far, I personally believe that the other traditional forms of media will not disappear for a long time. Newspapers for example, there has to be an efficient amount of the population who still purchase newspapers for the publications to keep running, most of our country does not have a computer, let alone internet access and they turn to the other publications for their news intake. Along with no computer/internet access, a large percentage of our population is unfortunately uneducated and they turn to the radio and/or the television to stay up to date with what is happening in our country, especially for events such as government elections, strikes and weather.

Without the other traditional forms of media, the news would not be distributed as it should and with the state our country is in, I think it vitally important that South Africans keep up to date with what is happening around them, whether it is online, radio, print or television. Online just happens to be easier to access at any time as well as efficient for journalists with breaking news. 

I also think that traditional media is more reliable than certain aspects of online journalism. Although certain publications online are proper news publications and are up to date with the daily news, citizen journalism and blogging cannot be entirely reliable. It is a great form of opinion and additional information that the other publications might not have covered, but I personally wouldn’t solely rely on these forms because they are not monitored or under control of editors or qualified journalists. 

No matter which form of media people use to find out what is happening around them and abroad, online seems to be the biggest and better form presently due to technology and the internet growing every day. I still believe the other forms are just as important as online is and I don’t think these forms will disappear from the competition market just yet. Maybe in the next ten years or so we will start to see everyone swaying more to online journalism than to the others if most of the population has the access to a computer and the internet. Until then, traditional media, in my opinion, is just as important as online media. 

Written by Gemma-Louise Wright, edited by Michaela Anderson (Web Journalism lecturer)

True Grit: Cape Town’s Gang Warfare Exposed Through Fiction (August 2011) - Crime Fiction Book Review

                                                                                                                                                                                    
Local Crime Writer Masterfully Reveals Our Own ‘Dirty Laundry’ in his second thriller, Wake up Dead           

                   

Roger Smith was born and raised in Johannesburg and currently resides in Cape Town. Before he decided to dedicate himself to crime writing, he was a screenwriter, producer and a director.

Smith’s debut thriller, Mixed Blood, was published in over six countries in 2009, winning the the Deutschen Krimi Preis 2010 in Germany and it was nominated for a Spinetingler Best Novel Award in the states. 

Wake up Dead was published internationally in 2010 and is in the run for the Krimi-Blitz Reader's Award in Germany, as well as the Spinetingler Best Novel Award. 

Both novels are in the process of being made into feature films, with Samuel L Jackson due to appear in Mixed Blood. Smith’s latest novel, Dust Devils, will be released in 2011. 

‘With savage plotting and breakneck suspense that ends in a shattering cataclysm of violence, Wake up Dead confirms Roger Smith as one of the world’s best new thriller writers’  Amazon.com

 

‘You can't put it down and you also can't sleep after the horror you have just read. Wake up Dead is shocking, brutal and the plot twists will leave you breathless. Roger Smith has renewed my faith in crime fiction. That is for sure.’  Michelle Anslie, Women24.com 

The major themes that Smith deals with are the issues South Africa faces regarding poverty-stricken gang territories and the increasing crime rate we witness on a daily basis.

The ongoing themes dealt with in this book are racial and cultural differences, underground politics, gang warfare, homosexuality, South African witchcraft, poverty, greed, revenge, abuse, violence, fraud, corruption in the police force, crime and most of all survival. 

Through his different and precise characters that link and communicate with each other in a ring of danger, the negativities of the themes he introduces to the reader are so blunt and realistic that you are forced to stop reading for a few seconds and process the previous words you have just read.

The basic plot sketches a rich South African businessman and his American supermodel wife who are hijacked one summer evening in Cape Town, leaving her a widow. Through his death and the process of burying him, she is introduced to old business partners and employees of her late husband, forcing her into an extremely dangerous and unknown territory, brutally governed and protected from the poverty-stricken Cape Flats. 

The story is about two different cultures and racial classes who are intertwined through fraud, business, crime, unsettled old scores and the dangerous gangs, the 26’s, the 28’s and the Americans. The reader will quickly realize that different cultural backgrounds are not aspects that set us apart from the harsh reality of the underground world we are completely naive of which operates in our own back yard.  

The author has an exceptional talent of ‘showing-not-telling’ throughout the entire story. He describes every character’s actions in specific ways and it gives way to a complete visual for the reader. ‘acrid sweat ran from him like he sprung a leak, and his joints joined in a chorus, singing along with his nerves and his cramping gut, pleading for the sweet relief that only tik could give him’ 

He delves deep into his characters and their surroundings, making the reader believe that he was once part of one of the mentioned gangs. There is so much detail and insight into this particular lifestyle and while enjoying the story, the true grit and the harsh reality of this culture are bluntly portrayed.  ‘He would be adding a new teardrop, number nineteen, to mark his latest killing. Gutted the man like a pig that he was. The lights had still burned the night before in the communal cell block B, Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison – thirty brown men crammed into a cell made for ten. All members of the 28s prison gang. ‘  The only aspect I could find wrong with this book is that foreigners would not be able to entirely grasp the culture of the set up as well as South Africans would. 

Roger Smith will restore anyone’s faith and interest in crime fiction and South African writers as a whole. 

Research:

The Roger Smith Book website:

http://www.rogersmithbooks.com/page4aa.html

Amazon book reviews quote:

http://www.amazon.com/Wake-Up-Dead-Roger-Smith/dp/0805088768

Women24.com reviews quote:

http://www.women24.com/BooksAndAstrology/BookClub/Wake-Up-Dead-by-Roger-Smith-20100910

Written and reviewed by Gemma-Louise Wright