What kind of a blogger am I?

The world is a constantly changing place. Nations are born and kingdoms fall. The past century was not exempt from the drama of an evolving world. The highlights were numerous: the Great Depression of the 1930’s; the development of the nuclear bomb; the spread of capitalism and democracy; the creation of the computer; the growth of the cosmetics industry the eruption of incurable viruses like HIV and Ebola and dinosaur presidents like Robert Mugabe and Fidel Castro. All these events have made people happy or sad, and given them joy and sorrow. More importantly, they provided story ideas for newspapers, and world events today still give journalists stories to report. What would we do without the drama!

As the world is evolving, journalism changes with it. Journalism has moved from the more traditional view, which is about bringing newsworthy stories to the populace, to digging up personal, gory details of celebrities and sensationalising them. This movement resulted in a debate on whether tabloids are journalism. Well, those who enjoy reading them say they are, but the more serious men and women in this world say they are not. I think its façade journalism. It pretends to be, but it is not.

As the world changes, technology transforms with it and links up with journalism. Journalism and technology are best buddies nowadays. You don’t understand? Let me explain. Newspapers, radio stations, and television stations (no matter how delinquent) have websites that are accessible to anyone who has internet connection. Media organisations post their news stories onto the Internet. In 2005, terrorists attacked London during rush-hour. Unfortunately, people were killed and injured. And the BBC was not there to film the action as it happened. Luckily for them, there were folks who filmed all of the activity from their mobile phones and then sent it to the BBC who showed it to the viewers.

Then there is blogging. Blogging is for anyone: the wannabe journo, the distorted psycho or the outspoken politician. It is an opportunity for my voice to be heard, or more specifically my words to be read! Let’s face it. I’m a student journalist. What are the chances of me getting my view out there? What is Fareed Zakaria or Baffour Ankomah going to think if they read my stories? What are you going to think? Blogging is a chance for me to be a “techno-journalist”, while I wait for my big break at Newsweek.

My view on the world is not going to be another man’s view. We learn from each other. No man is an island. No man stands alone. I hope you will argue with me on this blog.