What I have learned from blogging so far

Another post in an occasional series. To go to the beginning of the series, start with the Introduction

I have been blogging since July 2004, as an experiment. Eighteen months later, I'm stunned by the amount of data I've been involved in generating.

Since that time, I have started two additional personal blogs, Digital Grammar and A Sista With Spondylitis. I have also started blogs for others: Before Brown, Beyond Boundaries for ASALH's 50th Anniversary Brown Archive, Brown at TCNJ, and Learning to Look. The last two were demonstration projects designed to teach teachers how to use blogging in the classroom. I have used blogs in two classes now, with lots of time for study and reflection in the meantime. And I have participated in three group blogs: Open Source Politics, Niggerati, and Ankylose This!

That's a lot to process. What I have learned, so far, is this:

1. I've found blogs useful as a knowledge management tool for other work. I often use the items I write or point to in my classes or other writing.

2. As a professional writer, I have been able to use samples from my blog in pitches to editors.

3. I have found that my interests and my writing style aren't conducive to generating much discussion, although I do get occasional comments and e-mails. That's disappointing, because I had hoped for more feedback in order to deepen my own understanding of issues. On the other hand, I have been gratified to find that there have been some stories, such as the death of Roy Veal, where the information I have found has been considered helpful.

4. I have found that the comments that I do get sometimes assume I have reached a conclusion when I have not. For example, my year-long project comparing the first year of news coverage of the murder of Sakia Gunn to that of Matthew Shepard was intended to provide data for further reporting, not to prove that the press was biased against covering Sakia because she was black, female and poor. While I did learn that both activists and some of my colleagues in the press saw race, sex and class bias in the coverage, some other possible explanations emerged as well.

Blogs seem to operate more as an echo chamber than as a way of sparking new conversations on issues -- except for those blogs that such as Marriage Debate where people of differing views have agreed to tease out each other's arguments. My own way of thinking is more inductive and socratic, but given what I'm coming to understand about the expectations of blogospheric discourse, it may seem as if I am asking rhetorical questions for the purpose of reaching a preconceived conclusion or trapping a putative opponent. For example, my questions about the ways in which the Bible's references to eunuchs, or the impact the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment on intersexed people are real questions, not tactical ones. I've been disappointed with the lack of response to those questions, particularly from religious conservatives. This may be a reflection of a phenomenon that Jay Rosen noticed with political reporters: those who raise open-ended questions are typically vulnerable to charges of covert bias.

5. I started this blog with a goal of keeping my voice as journalistic and analytical as possible. It became impossible to sustain that, though. Part of the reason may be that as a journalist, I'm a feature writer, not a hard newshound. However, I think that part of it is the medium itself. Blogs lend themselves to personal expression. And for the most part, bloggers don't have the resources to follow stories in the way paid full-time reporters can, so they tend to follow stories that reflect their passions. It adds a twist to tbe bloggers vs. journalists debate. It may make more sense to compare news-oriented bloggers to investigative journalists than to reporters or columnists. As Florence George Graves said of investigative reporters, perhaps bloggers are what they investigate.