A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

COM150: Blog about blogs

Today you're reading a blog about blogs. Got that? I asked you to read up on blogs, sometimes also known as weblogs (or "Web logs" if you follow Associated Press style), and come in ready to discuss them in class. We'll do that, but first do some more reading.

Starting with this blog. That's right. This thing you're reading is a blog. I maintain two or three for my classes.

If you haven't seen it already, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia probably has the best introduction to blogging. Read it over. Follow some of the links at the bottom, too.

There's another discussion I like. It's by a media consultant named Jeremy Goldkorn in Beijing (that's right, in China) who says all it takes is a "kid with a modem" to take on CNN or any of the other mega- content providers. I'm not sure I agree with him 100 percent, but it's worth thinking about.

Another place to look at is the Microsoft Corp. ezine Slate.com. Every morning they update a feature called "Today's Blogs." It's at the top of their start page, right under the standing feature "Today's Papers." You probably ought to read both, just to keep up with the world. Every morning "Today's Blogs" updates with what the political bloggers are saying, and "Today's Papers" tracks the top stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times.

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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.