THE DREAM IN ACTION

This blog post is not meant to be insightful or meant to share an opinion on any particular topics. It’s sole intent is to ask you your opinion. I have a question.

Is the casual style of writing that comes along with blogging a good thing or a bad thing for society?

Some times I still have my parents read over my writing and usually their reaction is that it’s too informal. I write like I speak and often times that means grammatical errors, slang terms, and off the cuff remarks. What’s the big deal? Well, recently there was a phenomenal blog post on the Fake Steve Jobs blog about ‘why mainstream media is dying’.Whoever the fake Steve Jobs is, he wrote…

And to all those people who go around wringing their hands and saying what are we going to do when the “real newspapers” all die and we have to get our news from Gawker and HuffPo and TechCrunch? Friends, I think we’re going to be just fine.

Part of it is the form of the media itself. If you’re a reporter at the Times, you get one story, and a fixed number of inches, and you’re smothered by layers of editors. At TechCrunch it’s one guy who can get his teeth into something and there’s no limit on how many articles he can do.

I love this. He points out that the agility of the informal publishing platform of a blog is what will allow so many people to eventually make the “standard” journalism world irrelevant. But back to the question, is this casual style bad for the overall reporting of news and how society consumes it?

I think not. I think that a less formal style of writing will eventually be the way that most of us consume the news. Obviously good writing will rise to the top, and that’s why I encourage current newspaper journalists to team up, leave their paper, and start a top notch blog with higher quality writing and coverage. But the print is going to die, it’s just a matter of time, and it would sure scare me to work in a known dying industry. But if that journalist is really good, they readers will come.

Penelope Trunk wrote a great post last month on why the internet has created a generation of great writers. Her last argument, which I really like…

Finally, for those of you who think students don’t know how to write in full sentences, you are the people who probably don’t understand how to use text as a persuasive medium.

In summary, I think that the style of writing that is most affective is changing. It’s more casual but like most successful things these days, it’s more personal, it’s more comfortable, and it’s more fun. Looks like I did end up sharing an opinion. But, like I stated at the start, what I want to know is what do you think? Is this style of writing that I employ and that so many others are beginning to use good or bad for readers?

image via flickr

A good friend of mine Dave Cohn (who has also contributed to ActionsTalk) launched a project that he has been working on for 6+ months this week. Spot.Us is coined as community funded reporting and is a result of a grant Dave received from the Knight News Challenge. Dave is a very accomplished journalist having written for Wired Magazine and graduated from Columbia University. His passionate for the future of reporting is inspiring and he is dedicated to the end goal of improving the current news reporting model.

With Spot.Us users can log in and donate to have a certain topic reported on. If a news station donate they must donate over 50% in order to have exclusive rights to that story. If the amount donated go’s over the needed amount users get credit towards their next donation to Spot.Us.

Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the Center for Media Change. We are an open source project, to pioneer “community funded reporting.” Through Spot.Us the public can commission journalists to do investigations on important and perhaps overlooked stories. All donations are tax deductible and if a news organization buys exclusive rights to the content, your donation will be reimbursed. Otherwise, all content is made available to all through a Creative Commons license. It’s a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate.

… David Cohn has worked with journalism luminaries such as Jay Rosen and Jeff Jarvis. He has been working in the citizen journalism movement since 2005 on projects like NewAssignment.Net, Assignment Zero, Beat Blogging, and Off The Bus. He also co-organized the first and second Networked Journalism Summit. Spot.Us is informed by the growing citizen journalism movement. Spot.Us is an attempt to ensure that journalism remain a strong and vital part of our local democracies as a participatory process, not just a product.

This site, due to Dave’s location has launched only in San Fran, but I’m sure with the attention that this project is sure to received they will be in other cities soon. Make sure to check out Spot.Us and Dave’s blog!


Spot.Us – Community Funded Reporting Intro from Digidave

“Spot Us” is a nonprofit that allows an individual or group to take control of news in their community by sharing the cost (crowdfunding) to commission freelance journalists to write important, or uncovered news stories.

Spot.Us was founded by David Cohn and is made possible by the Knight News Challenge grant. The project is informed by many people including you!!!!

Spot Us is currently in pre-alpha mode, but are using a community wiki to organize proofs of concept. Help journalism and keep democracy strong.

Spot.Us officially has my support in any aspect of their development. Good luck Dave!