Showing posts with label on-line writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label on-line writing. Show all posts

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Bad blogger, bad blogger


It has been a while since I've written in this blog, but not because I've given up writing; quite the contrary. I have been writing more of late.

In fact, I recently became re-employed. I was laid off in March from a small weekly, Illinois newspaper where I have worked since 1999. Even after my husband and I moved to Arkansas, I contributed stories of local interest to that paper. That always cracks me up. But except for face-to-face interviews and physically covering meetings, most of what I do can be done over the phone or via email, virtually from anywhere.

Last fall, another reporter, was also let go for cost-savings. She decided to start her own newspaper. Though she and I have never met, she had heard good things about my work. She sent me an email to ask if I'd consider writing for her. I agreed.

It took a while to get up to speed on what was happening in neighborhoods 600 miles away from where I live, but with long friendships and acquaintances, it wasn't too difficult.

Some of my latest projects have had to do with the state's effort to build a new airport. It is a project that to me never really made sense. But, Illinois politicans remain determined to dust off a 1968 idea, spend money on new marketing strategies, and keep the thing alive. Most of their promises continue to amount to nothing more than politcian-speak. I doubt they will ever succeed.

I've followed their progress, or lack of it, since 1985, back when I was a simple housewife and stay-at-hom mom who heard about what I thought was an outlandish scheme to build an airport larger than O'Hare International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world in the farm fields some 40 miles south of Chicago. It was easy to be 'no airport.'

I was born in Chicago and grew up a few miles from O'Hare.

Those are very different places than the small farm town surrounded by country where I lived. Yet it was just a few miles from the project's proposed location. An airport just didn't fit. I was inspired to fight the thing, so I hung up my apron and grabbed a pencil and writing pad. I never thought the battle would last most of my adult life.

The people didn't want it. The local governments didn't want it. The airlines didn't want it. Only the politicans, real estate agents, construction workers, and land speculators wanted it. And they had all the political clout. The good folks that would be displaced had none.

That pen and paper came in handy because just a few months later, the fates led me to the newsroom of a daily newspaper who hired me to write about this and many other things. And now, as of last November, that is what I continue to do.

Some of the stories I've written about this project and others can be viewed on my blog at CHBlog. Most of them are published.

It is pretty late for New Years' resolutions, but I think I will make one anyway. I'm going to try to be more diligent at writing in my blog.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Internet writing

Internet writing

As a former journalist I have some real concerns about internet writing. It seems everybody's doing it, but is everybody qualified to do it? This should be of concern all internet users.

Not only is it difficult to earn decent pay by writing on the internet, but I see another problem as well.

Catering to Google

I am a big fan of Google. I too have my Google adsense account and try to use the proper meta tags. I want to please Google too. After all, it is Google that hosts this blog. But, it seems that writers are more interested in how Google perceives your work than facts and information internet readers are seeking. This is akin to newspapers catering to advertisers instead of their loyal readers. And look what happened to them. Google is a business. It should cater to advertisers, but writers should not.

Folks seem to be more interested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization), page rank, and visibility, than they are about checking facts.

Citizen Journalists

For example, I came across an article this morning, written by a citizen journalist, on one of those writing sites that touts 'write what you know.' The article was clearly her opinion. What she said could be construed as being detrimental to the person she wrote about. I hope he doesn't sue. Clearly her opinion, the article was presented as if it was fact, in a newspaper style. Now, I've been known to have strong opinions myself, but only with supporting evidence and an opposing viewpoint.

Her story was later picked up by a blog that quoted her, giving false credibility to her story.

I've also come across researching issues only to find the same misinformation copied over and over and over again.

A call to internet writers

Consider this a call to all internet writers -- check your facts before you publish anything. Is the information you are publishing reliable enough for your child to use in his/her term paper?

I love the internet and I don't want to see it filled with garbage. What we write lasts forever. I have found the internet to be an incredible resource. I would hate to see it tainted with bad information. Let's all band together as writers and do whatever we can to ensure that what makes it to the internet is responsible, factual, and legitimate.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Internet responsibility

I have been doing a little on-line writing lately, which requires learning about new things and researching issues of which I have very little or no knowledge. I love learning new things. I treat learning as almost a hobby. But it is vital to be able to trust what I know.

I am troubled by some things I have discovered.

The Internet often mirrors real life -- the good and the bad. My personal and professional experiences over the last 25 years have shown me that if a lie is told often enough, it is often taken as fact. That has certainly been a hallmark in the State of Illinois' quest to build the Peotone Airport, my personal poster child for things amiss.

The internet was begun by a bunch of geeks and scholars. Today, all people have embraced it.

There is an influx of on-line writing, citizen journalism, blogging, new website, and a general on-line presence. On-line writing sites encourage everybody to try their hand at writing. They advertise that you can earn money by writing what you know. That is great!

But in doing so, individuals get caught up in a competition with other writers to write more, and even earn more. The result is often more quantity than quality. Those stories written by wannabe journalists are placed on the internet for the world to see, for young students to use as research projects, or for other writers.

Some writers simply regurgitate Wikipedia articles, put their name to it and go on to the next project. They give little thought to the reality that wikipedia is a work in progress. Often times, wiki writers get their information the same way, from something that has been posted to the internet. They think it is fact, but it may not be.

New articles may not be 100% accuracy. Then along come an eager new writer anxious to score another article. They are more intent on satisfying their google page rank and parroting incorrect information than doing more digging to verify what they are writing. And like the old game of telephone, on and on it goes until nothing can be trusted for accuracy. I don't want to see that happen.

I love the Internet. It has been one of my favorite developments in the 20th century. It offers scads of information to teach new things, or in my case, replenish some of what I've forgotten. It offers new opportunities, potential for earnings, introduced new careers, and countless other things. I would hate to see it become tainted by too much bad information.

So, in the same context as real life, we must take responsibility for everything we write. If internet users are going to act like journalists, we must behave like journalists - dig, dig, dig for the truth.

The same goes true for users of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others. Know that what you write, could last forever. Make sure it is what you really want to say. Use good common sense, do your research, be responsible, and think before you write. If that is done by all users of the internet, this medium will continue to be the wonder that it is.