Blog Tips for Beginners: A New Blogger’s Guide

PBS.org has a very good post called “A Blogger’s Guide” explaining what blogging is with lots of links to books, definitions, software, other resources and more.

Included are commentary on the following topics:

It’s by no means definitive, but then again it is only a (albeit lengthy) post and not a book, and covers the topic very well. The part that I like best is a quote from Howard Kurtz, dean of the media critics who writes for the Washington Post. He sums up the allure of blogs vs. traditional journalism (mainstream media) very well:

Why are the best blogs sometimes more compelling than the ‘Senator Jones said yesterday’ style of too much newswriting?” Kurtz asked. “Because the bloggers have a voice and emotions and are speaking directly to you. Because they’re up front about their biases. Newspaper stories often seem like straitjackets, incremental, dulled-down, written in a sort of insider’s code. Plus, blogs are faster, which is part of the reason that Washingtonpost.com and a number of other newspaper sites have either hired outsiders to write columns or put staffers in touch with their inner blogger.

Chalk another one up for the blogosphere and couldn’t have said it better myself. You can read more of “A Blogger’s Guide” at PBS.

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