Blogging the News

By Liz Kim

I have lofty blog goals. Sadly if this blog is anything like the numerous diaries and journals I’ve had,  it’s screwed. Below are two sorta kinda vague ideas one of which will hopefully blossom into an attractive, fully functioning, textually tantalizing blog.

Idea #1 

A few weeks ago, I found that wedged in between the many restaurants in my neighborhood was a tiny used book store. I’ve walked up and down that street countless times and never noticed it. What else have I been missing? My blog will chronicle my journey of discovering my own Bayside backyard. I’ll shop the mom and pop stores and dine at all the local restaurants. Sometimes it feels like Queens is the forgotten middle child and even I admit that I’ve abandoned my beloved borough more and more, especially since I started attending Baruch.

Idea #2 

Because the other boroughs weren’t easily accessible, most of my childhood hanging out was spent in Flushing. It’s just a bus ride away but it feels like you’ve taken a plane to Asia. However when a lot of the signage is in a language you can’t understand, it can be a little daunting to decide where you’d like to eat or shop. My blog would be a Lonely Planet-esque guide on how to navigate Flushing and it would also have posts about the changes that Flushing has experienced over the years.

Both blog ideas focus on neighborhoods that I feel don’t get enough, if any, coverage. I want my reader to know that you don’t have to commute an hour and a half just for a slice of pizza or a bowl of noodles.

One of the ideas I brought up in class was a blog that would be similar in nature to “Humans of New York,” but would instead be about the pets of New York. Many people have interesting stories about how they have rescued or adopted their pets, which I believe the public would find interesting. This blog is necessary to shed light on the nature of adoption in a journalistic format, while also acting as a platform to promote adoption. I believe it could be a fun and enjoyable blog that would still be serving a greater purpose. It would also focus on statistics about adoption specific to New York City.

Another idea I have is a blog about being a vegetarian in New York City. I’m not sure exactly how I would go about this blog or how I could narrow my focus, but it would mostly highlight restaurants and places in NYC where there are vegetarian options, or better yet, entire restaurants devoted to vegetarian clientele. As a vegetarian, I understand how difficult it can sometimes be to maintain a vegetarian lifestyle when it feels like your food choices are limited. I already know several vegetarian friendly places that are worthy of recognition, so this blog would be effective in helping interested readers discover new places.

One of the ideas I want to explore in my blog this semester is the presence of Asian American communities in New York City. As an Asian American myself, I am ashamed to say that I do not know much about my heritage or about the events that affect the Asian community as a whole. I have never given it much thought but I am aware of many nonprofit organizations I could potentially interview such as CPC, APICHA, and CAAV, all focused on promoting the welfare of the Asian community, as well as Asian interest clubs on our very campus and other schools I could speak with. The current news coverage on the Asian American community specifically is rather limited because there’s simply too much news to cover so my blog would be able to fill that void and potentially shed some light on what it means to be an Asian American in New York City.

The other idea that I had involves looking at the local arts around the city. I am not exactly sure where I want to go with this idea but I was thinking about potentially looking at places such as the High Line or visiting public libraries or thrift shops to explore the local arts in those places. I could also take another route and following rising stars like my friend who is currently working with an artist towards curating his own exhibit. My second idea still needs a bit more refinement but in terms of filling a void, I think it could bring about more awareness to the art scene in the city.

Although I am not entirely sure as to what I want my blog to be about, you, Professor Haller, mentioned an idea in class that I found very interesting. The idea was about New York City basketball courts. I believe this topic for a blog would be interesting and needed because NYC has hundreds of outdoor basketball courts spread throughout the 5 boroughs but most of them are always empty. The void it may fill is the lack of coverage of local recreational activities for free that nobody uses, while more time is spent on promoted activities for kids like the NFL’s “Play 60.” When I was growing up playing basketball in the Bronx and Harlem, you could always find kids in the courts, but now that is simply not the case. I can try to find out why kids are playing less, if kids are more obese than before, is there a relation to crime? This seems a bit ambitious and my idea isn’t set in stone, however, I am open to other ideas within the basketball court idea on which angle to go with it.

Another option would be to do a blog on underground boxing. I have a friend who either shares links to YouTube videos, or short clips of these events, even participating himself. From what I have seen from the outside looking in is that these are clearly not your typical sporting events. From some footage I have seen, a few Boxers drink alcohol in-between rounds, and just dance or act silly with the crowd instead of really preparing for the next round. To me it’s almost like a “fight club” that is not necessarily widely known. Some of the fights do look competitive and the events draw at least a couple hundred people. The problem with this topic is that I am unsure as to how often these fighting events actually occur. However, I think it has potential to give insight on an underground world I’m not sure many people know much about, myself included.

For Monday, Sept. 15,  each student must post to this blog ideas for two blogs that he or she might like to start this semester. Write a paragraph of four to five sentences for each idea. Please include in each post, thoughts on why the blog is needed and what void it fills in existing news coverage. Please keep your ideas grounded in New York City (or suburbs, if they are more convenient) so that you will be able to go out and interview actual people over the course of the semester.

In class on Monday, we discussed whether a carefully curated Twitter feed can be considered a blog. I’m not sure whether we reached a consensus, but certainly it is a valid question to address in the context of our class. I want to push that discussion one step further: Is a carefully curated SnapChat feed also a blog? Editors at SnapCchat are doing just that — offering up a “live” feed from New York Fashion Week. The New York Observer has an interesting piece about this effort, saying it feels a lot fresher and more relevant than #fashionweek feed over at Instagram. Here’s an excerpt that explains what Snapchat is doing:

So what’s a live story on Snapchat? The startup did the same thing for Electric Daisy Carnival in April and the World Cup finals in July. Users could send their own videos and photos not only to their friends, but also to a team at Snapchat. Snapchat then curated the best media to be part of one massive Snapchat live story. It was pretty fun and effective, especially when the World Cup story showed revelers from around the world prepping for matches in Rio and cheering their teams on.

What I find interesting is that the Snapchat “live” feed requires editorial judgement by its employees and that it’s not just a hashtag that pulls in everything anyone is posting about a particular subject. That to me feels like some kind of journalism is at work.

NEW YORK blogs:

And for our discussion today on topics to blog about, I came across two that I thought were interesting that I want you to look at:

I Quant NY

and

The Christie Tracker

For Monday, write a three-page paper analyzing the effectiveness of an established journalistic blog. You can choose to examine one blog or compare two blogs that cover similar topics. Answer the following questions in your paper:

1. What specific topic or niche does the blog cover? How effective is the blog at clearly stating its purpose? Does it stay focused on its topic, or do you find it confusing.
2. What kind of content does the site produce? Describe in detail the types of blog posts that are published on this blog – reported stories, Q&As, reviews, videos, photo slideshows, opinion pieces, etc.
3. Who are the main competitors for this site? How does the quality of the blog’s content compare to its competitors’.
4. Try to ascertain who is writing the blog. Is it one person’s blog? Is it a blog that has many contributors? Is it part of a larger news organization?
5. How do you think the site makes money, or how do you think it contributes to the business model of the larger news organization it is a part of?
6. How active is the blog on social media? What kind of a strategy do you think it has?
7. How do you think the blog could be improved?

THIS IS A GRADED ASSIGNMENT. I MARK OFF FOR GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES.

You will be presenting your findings during class on Monday, Sept. 8

This course introduces students to the world of journalistic blogging and social media in all its diversity, from exploring complex policy, social and economic issues to offering commentary on local art exhibits, music clubs, and local food stands. Students will learn techniques for making their online writing engaging, how to make a point quickly, and how to develop ideas and find an original voice while hewing to journalism’s commitment to accuracy and clarity.