Lounge Chair Journalism

I’m reading a book called Letters to a Young Journalist for my journalism class, and it’s a really great read. If you have any interest in either being a journalist or hearing a really astute set of advice to people who are looking to be journalists, this is the book.

At the part of the book where I am, he mentions briefly the pitfalls of the internet:

There was a history before Nexis, and there is research beyond Google. The very ease of online reporting makes it seductive and dangerous. In both the blogosphere and the ever-expanding field of media criticism, I see a version of reporting that eschews human contact and firsthand observation, two things that have an inconvenient way of complicating or contradicting one’s preexisting opinions.

He does have a point. I carry no pretense of being a journalist on this site. That would be laughable. This is a constant stream-of-consciousness thought experiment, where I dabble in things than amuse me, and nothing more.

I think there is definitely a place for journalism in the blogosphere, but I think people need to careful of what they call the real thing.