Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to what makes for a successful blog. In class this week, we discussed various approaches to tackling the challenges of finding one’s voice and building a following: The blending of the personal with the public; instinct with craft; journalism with individuality. How much of my world do I really want to share? Does anyone care or really have the time for another voice? What, exactly, is my product, my brand?

So many questions and so many blogs to cite for examples of one approach or another. For those of you who are struggling with these questions, I offer advice that I am trying to take myself: In order to create and maintain a successful blog, the blogging must be an honest and natural extension of the world you inhabit. Rinse and repeat that thought over and over again.

To that end, I’d like to share some friends’ blogs that accomplish the task at hand. The first touches on the universal topics of love and money. Operation Night Brace is a clever and endearing blog that chronicles a New York couple’s quest to be debt-free. It’s her student loan debt of $180,000 but it’s their problem to solve – together. Check out the archived posts from when they started the blog. It’s literally a labor of love for these two. And it’s such a simple idea.

The other blog I’d like to share is called enGender. It’s the story of Helen Boyd, author of the book, My Husband Betty, and a friend of mine since the sixth grade. Helen has always had an interest in gender issues and as it turns out, she married a man that now lives as “Betty.” Transgender issues may not be at the forefront of everyone’s world but the concepts of identity and self-representation are ones that we all deal with at some level of consciousness. How we “present” ourselves to the world is most definitely a universal struggle. This is one woman’s unique experience with identity, involving the person she fell in love with. And guess what, she’s not alone. She has a huge following and has since published her second book, She’s Not the Man I Married.

Happy blogging, everyone!