Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

So you think this is easy? Let me tell you, my friend, blogging is hard work. There's and art and a science to doing right. Oh, yes, I'm serious. And, apparently, the folks at UC Berkeley and USC agree with me.

Yes, blogging has gone legit, sort of. This fall UCB's Graduate Schools of Journalism will offer a course in blogging, and blogging will be included in USC's online journalism course.

Now, this, in and of itself is not really all that ridiculous. The reaction from "blogging pioneers," however, is. "Mark my words, this is going to be the Altamont of the blogging movement," Sean Kirby posted on the Daily Pundit blog, adding, "Teaching of blogging in journalism school signals an end of an era, a movement from blogging being separate from the old media, to it being appropriated by the media establishment."

Get real kids. Blogging is a technology that leads to a particular journalistic format. It works pretty well, too. The use of either the technology or the format by "traditional journalism" does not usurp the power of, or diminish the need for, independent, underground, online journalism any more than the traditional newspapers themselves could eliminate independent, underground, print alternatives.

And speaking of "traditional, legitimate news sources," did you read the one about Congress threatening to leave Washington, DC, if newer, more modern facilities were not built immediately? It was front page news in China.