Basic Blogging For Student Journalists

Outline
hu u?
Just enough
How to learn the most from this presentation: Ask a question that will help you as a student journalist.
Case studies:
The Guidon
The Philippine Online Chronicles
Juanvote
The citizen student as a journalist
Choose your discussion

Hu u, blogging?
“ blog ” = “We b log ”. A journal of stories, news or events published on the web, typically in reverse-chronological order.
Examples
Blogspot.com
Wordpress.com
Typepad.com
Multiply.com
Facebook.com (notes)
Twitter and many others

Case A: www.theguidon.com

Case B: thepoc.net

Case C: juanvote.com

Case D: Citizen-Student Journalist

Choose your discussion
Write a specific question which, when answered, will help you take action towards blogging as a student journalist or citizen .
Write your name, a.s.l., school, position in school paper

Q&A: Plagiarism
Is it possible that plagiarism happens on the web blog? How can we control this situation? How can we protect our blogsites? – Darmie Grace S. Napano, 18, F, Guimaras, UI-PEN, EIC
1. ) There are “scrapers”, netizens in and outside the Philippines who copy your work. If it doesn’t hurt you (they’re too distant from you or the issue), don’t waste you energy on them. Let them be. Ganyan ang life.
2.) If the plagiarism has hurt you (e.g. another person takes credit, gets paid for your work, gets acknowledged or awarded for your work), take action. Provide proof that you are the originator. Often, the plagiarizer will take down (remove) the copied content.
3.) How to protect yourself from plagiarism? Infuse your unique writing style, your unique sentence construction. Create titles or unique descriptions in your story. For instance, if you create a title: “Antique’s foremost student journalist’s huddle space”, other people cannot use it as their own anymore. When appropriate, infuse your feelings and emotions into your article. People can copy facts (e.g. news) and get away with it; but they cannot copy emotions and get away with it.

Q&A: Earnings from blogging
Magkano bang kinikita sa blogging? – Alexis Germinal, 21, M, Bacolod, Cartoonist
For my main blog started in 2005 – www.technobiography.com - I probably earned my first $1 after one month. Earned my first $100 after 1 year. Started earning $100 monthly after 2 years.
I also earn from text-link-ads . People are willing to give me a monthly fixed payment in exchange of installing on my blog a link to their website.
Example of highly successful bloggers. Anton Diaz of www.OurAwesomePlanet.com has reached a level of income from his blog and other related activites enough for him to resign from his CIO position in Procter & Gamble.

Q&A: Earnings from blogging
How viable financially is online journalism? Mode of Payment?
I personally get paid via advertisements. I do not get paid per article.
Some writers can get paid for writing reviews or any articles about a certain product or service. There are websites that pay from $5 to $15 dollars up to $80 dollars depending on the kind of article.
You can reap much money if you can write many articles (while maintaining good quality writing).
Mode of payment: Usually PayPal. Sometimes western union or other similar services.

Q&A: Writing style for blogs
For you, what’s the right formula of an effective and highly-catchy blogsite? 0 Norman Daliva, 18, male, Bolocaue, Miagao, EIC
First answer is for first-time bloggers: Don’t worry about writing style. Just keep writing and writing, get the rhythm going.
After writing your first 10 or 20 articles, when you’re ready to take it a level higher, think about how you want to project yourself. Do you want to be humorous? Are you serious? Pointed, critical, opinionated? Constructive? Positive? Objective?
Think about your objective for writing. Is it to share info? To influence your readers to think or take action? Is it to inspire? From all these, you will develop your own writing style. Experiment as well. Based on the level of interaction and feedback from your readers, you can tell which articles and writing styles help you achieve your objectives.

Q&A: Writing style for blogs
How do you know if what you posted could actually rouse netizens to action? I don’t want to be seen as someone who just posts and posts. – 19, F, Jaro, Editor in Chief
First answer is for first-time bloggers: Don’t worry about writing style. Just keep writing and writing, get the rhythm going.
Interact with your readers. Invite them to leave comments or send email.
On the other hand, learn to manage your expectations. If you feel each and every blogpost needs to move each and every reader, sasakit ang ulo mo. Be kind to yourself.
Sometimes I have articles that, receives feedback for the first time from a person who is deeply touched and affected … after 3-years that the article is posted online. Rejoice in these opportunities to touch people’s lives.

Q&A: Content of blog & paper
For school publication blogs, are they simply the same articles that you publish in print or do they have to be different articles? 0 Celine Chua, 19, F, Bacolod City, Editor-in-Chief
There is an overlap. Main difference and determinant is the immediacy of blogging (can publish almost instantly) as compared to the turn-around time of publishing your school paper (e.g. monthly, twice a sem, twice a year). Use the timing to select which articles are relevant in the blog, and which are relevant in paper.
For instance, Tweets (microblogs) can give relevant content in your blog (e.g. live tweeting a festival). But unless truly remarkable, tweets don’t need to come out on paper.
News, especially breaking news, does well on blogs. News can become stale when they come out too many months later on paper. Feature stories can wait (no need to publish immediately) and may have bigger impact in paper. Use your best judgement.

Q&A: Photos & Videos
How Limited is blogging in aspects of putting videos and pictures in a blog? - Ray Adrian Macalalag, Univ of San Agustin, Managing Editor, Agustinian Mirror.
Generally, use of photos you took yourself for your own blog is acceptable as long as it does not degrade other people/entities.
Use of other people’s photos typically needs at least written (even online) permission to use on your blog. Give them credit for it.
Many images and videos are public domain, and you are generally free to share it responsibly. For instance, people upload videos on YouTube because they want it to be shared. If they don’t want it shared, they shouldn’t have uploaded it. On the other hand, do not upload videos you don’t own. Websites have “take-down” policies to manage un-authorized upload of videos.
Again, use your best judgement. Treat people and their photos/videos with respect.

Q&A: Traffic
How can we invite traffic/people to read our articles online without the use of advertisements. - Ben Justin A Blacer, 23, male, Mandurriao, Iloilo City, Colegio de San Jose, The Scroll.
For “advertisements”, I’ll qualify this as *paid* advertisements. Here are some free ideas of promoting your site/articles:
Publish your URL on your paper.
Distribute links of your articles via your facebook, twitter, multiply, email network.
Write well.
Publish useful information that people have a tendency to share.
Use “share” services which help your readers “share” your article to their own networks.

Final Messages
Jose Rizal had the pen, you have the keyboard and various online tools. What are you fighting for?
Writing is a weapon. Use it wisely for positive change.
With great power comes great responsibility. Use your weapon responsibly.
Lastly, keep on learning, enjoy your discoveries and have fun! s

References
Case studies:
The Guidon – www.theguidon.com
The Philippine Online Chronicles – www.thepoc.net
Juanvote – www.juanvote.com
The citizen student as a journalist
www.edwinsoriano.com
www.qik.com/ka_edong ; http://qik.com/video/3010884
www.slideshare.com/ka_edong (this presentation)

Toolbox
Where to start blogging:
www.blogspot.com
www.wordpress.com
www.journ.ph

Basic Blogging For Student Journalists

by Edwin Ka Edong Soriano on Jul 28, 2010

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