University of Florida | 7 July 2008

Blogs and Journalism

WordPress Workshop

Start your own blog (hands-on): Go to WordPress.com and register for a free blog. Click the green button: Sign Up Now!

To log in, always go to WordPress.com (on any computer). After you log in there, you can open your dashboard.

1. Dashboard: Here is where you make changes to your blog.
2. Settings: Change title, tagline, time zone and language on your blog.
3. Design: Change your Theme (blog appearance) or add new "widgets."
4. Write: Create and publish a new blog post. (Adding images, links, etc., is done in the Post box when you write or edit a blog post.) Don't forget to write a good title.
5. Manage: Edit or change existing posts.
6. Widgets: These are objects, lists, or sections in your sidebar.
7. Links (also called the Blogroll): Look under Manage, then under Links. This is how you add new hyperlinks to your sidebar. (NOTE 1: Make sure you have added the widget named "Links" to your sidebar! NOTE 2: To make lists in addition to "Blogroll," create new categories here, in Manage > Links.)

Resources and examples:

• The New York Times blog index lists more than 50 blogs.
• Blogs have changed how I do my job, for the better: A column by an Albuquerque Tribune reporter about why she reads other people's blogs.
• Use of Google Analytics or Site Meter enhances your understanding of your blog's audience. WordPress.com also has built-in statistics tracking.
• How to be an Authority Maven: 21 Tips for Keeping Up to Date in Your Niche: If you learn how to manage and control the information overload, you'll know more about your beat than anyone else does.
• Get Schooled: A blog by the education reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
• Mortarboard: A blog about education from The Guardian.
• Managing Globalization: A blog from the International Herald Tribune.
• Teaching Online Journalism is Mindy's blog.

Class assignments:

Here is an assignment I gave to my students, requiring them to keep a blog for 12 weeks.

Blogging assignment for a journalism class at the University of Hong Kong.

RSS feeds and readers -- why and how to use them

• Google Reader (Web site -- nothing to download)
• Here is a good how-to you can use to get started with RSS
• The Economist list of RSS feeds
• New York Times list of RSS feeds
• BBC list of RSS feeds
• Washington Post list of RSS feeds

How do people keep up with dozens of blogs? They subscribe to the blogs they like -- in their RSS reader.

Copyright © 2008 Mindy McAdams | University of Florida