Friday, October 26, 2007

Vanity prompts Journalists to Blog

(photo:zen)
An interesting article in The Observer, saying that basically the reason journalists are keeping or launching blogs is to promote themselves as a brand apart from their organizations.

True of me? I have several reasons for doing this:
First, to be able to talk a little bit about things other than stuff I can write about professionally. But I don't think it would work if a lot of people were looking here (it averages about 20 hits a day, about half Dutch and half U.S. or British visitors). So a little bit of a creative outlet.
Second, to communicate with people other than my friends and family about what I'm doing, and maybe reap some criticism or suggestions. In other words, looking for some feedback, but I'm not getting much of that either. (I'm thankful, though, for what I do get!).
Third, as a partial "record" _ links _ to some of what I'm doing professionally, so that it's collected in one place and doesn't totally disappear into the ether.
Fourth, self-education, especially about the technology. Tinkering with the HTML, editing clips, learning to take photos, etc.

All of those reasons are vain at some level. But then, Omnis Vanitas.

But as far as "personal branding" _ not so much. I intentionally avoid mentioning my employer here, in order to make it clear this is something separate. I'm pretty sure I'd be nowhere as a journalist without a big organization behind me, and my value to my employer is as an 'anonymous' hard worker; and I can't imagine an inherently self-limiting (see: Dylan posts) blog would make a difference in that regard.

Anyway, I think I'll always be employable *somewhere* after 9 years working for "the wires."

(photo: meredith_farmer)

In more vanity news,
I'm the new secretary of the BPV, de Buitenlandse Persvereiniging, also known as the Netherlands' Foreign Press Association.

***

Alleen voor de nederlanders:

hier te lezen op: "Villa Media" De Journalist. Tien woorden, en ze hebben een typefoutje gemaakt in mijn naam.

De Buitenlandse Persvereniging (BPV) in Nederland heeft een nieuw bestuur. Tijdens de algemene ledenvergadering werd verkozen tot voorzitter de Duitse correspondente Kerstin Schweighöfer (werkzaam voor FOCUS, DEUTSCHLANDFUNK en ARD-radio’s). Vice-voorzitter is de Zwitserse Elsbeth Gugger (Zwitserse Publieke Omroep Radio DRS, Tages-Anzeiger). De Amerikaan Toby Sperling (AP) is de nieuwe BPV-secretaris. Zijn landgenoot Douglas Heingartner (New York Times, The Economist) blijft penningmeester. En de Roemeense Claudia Marcu (Roemeense Publieke Radio) zorgt ook in 2008 voor de ledenadministratie. Verder zitten in het bestuur de Russische journalist Andrei Poskakukhin (RIA Novosti) en zijn Spaanse collega Isabel Ferrer (El País).

Hahahahaha ten minste niet "Toby Sperming."

Trouwens, ik ben ook nu een keer in de maand te hooren op "Desmet Live," 747AM of www.desmetlive.nl. Een segment over buitenlandse correspondenten in Nederland. Omgeveer 6uur, eerstevolgende zijn 13 november en 4 december.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude, brush up your Latin: Vanitas Vanitatum, omnia Vanitas, if i remember my Asterix & Obelix comic correctly!

has been deleted said...

Well, blogging as a journalist or not, it's all self-promotion.

But so are art and music and wearing the right shoes.

And no one likes a person wearing inappropriate shoes.

Therefore, blogging is ok and right.

Then again this kind of logic might be why I was never very good at those math proofs in Linear Algebra.

Apparently, according to some Poli Sci PhD theses, blogs have a much greater effect on media than on regular people or anyone else.

And PR folks are trying to get their products into journalists' blogs, not really sure why, if only journalists read them.

Oh what a tangled web we weave.