Finalization of Blog Research

When I first started this project I realized that I knew next to nothing about blogging. I knew it existed and I knew the basics of what it entailed but I never got into it. Being forced to look at them and learn about them was a learning experience that definitely changed my view on blogging and blogging's impact on print journalism. News is a big part of my life as I subscribe to US News, Time Magazine, The Economist, and various other magazines as well good portions of my time on the internet reading the news (CNN, Slashdot, Yahoo! News).

My blogging adventure began with trying to decide of bloggers even had an impact on print journalism. My initial reaction was that no, blogging had no impact whatsoever on print journalism. After doing a few hours of research I found the exact opposite to be true. Later on I learned about Entrepreneurial blogs where one could get direct insight into a company by reading blogs by employees or the operating staff. This was something that couldn't be done with print news sources unless they received permission to go in and look at a company. Next I looked at magazines versus blogs and learned about how blogs must deal with credibility and content unlike magazines. I don't really understand how blogs and magazines really relate so this caused me to question whether or not print journalism was really affected by blogs or not... However, after looking at information blogs I realized that blogs have a huge impact on information being provided to the public. Before this project began I thought blogs were just ramblings of some Joe Schmoe who had nothing of value to offer. I was definitely wrong and all I had to do was go out there and look at blogs instead of condemning them without even looking at what they had to offer.

By actively participating in online research by blogging I have found that blogs can offer a more specialized look into information/events that print journalism cannot. Instead of listening to a reporter blogs offer a much wider segment of authors to read from and learn from. I realize that someone can read my blog and learn something that I learned - blogs and their impact on journalism.

I believe this project was definitely worthwhile as a learning tool. Instead of reading something from a book we got out there and did things for ourselves to learn what was going on. I am a big fan of interactive learning instead of passive learning. This project opened my eyes to blogs, something that I had been closed to and against in the past. I will leave this project with a positive reaction and a lot of information gained about something I knew nothing about before.

My final thesis statement is that blogs can have a big impact on print journalism but in my opinion most of the blogs out there do not have much to do with journalism but topics that authors find interesting. I found few blogs that were journalism like in their making. Most blogs were about people wanting to decorate their home, sports teams, and interesting stuff not necessarily made for print journalism.

I believe that blogs have a small impact on print journalism but as time goes on blogs will have more of an impact and cause news organizations to offer more specialized/detailed content. Blogs can offer audiences things that news organizations (journalism) could never offer - an inside look into corporations, into policy makers, and hidden secrets of people.