University of Florida | 6 - 10 July 2009

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. The items below appear in a list on the left side of your Dashboard. Click them there to see the options.

1. Dashboard: Here is where you make changes to your blog.
2. Settings: "General" > Change title, tagline, time zone and language on your blog. NOTE: You can change these at any time, but you cannot change your domain (e.g., "mmmm" in http://mmmm.wordpress.com/). NOTE: Settings are waaay at the bottom of the Dashboard list.
3. Appearance: Change your Theme (blog appearance) or add new "widgets" (see No. 6).
4. Posts: "Add New" > Create and publish a new blog post. Don't forget to write a good title. (NOTE: Adding images, links, etc., is done in the Post box when you write or edit a blog post. Look for the words "Upload/Insert.")
5. Posts: "Edit" > Edit or change existing posts.
6. Appearance: "Widgets" > These are objects, lists, or sections in your sidebar.
7. Links (also called the Blogroll): "Add New" > 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 named something other than "Blogroll," create new Link Categories.)

Get answers to your WordPress.com questions at the Support site.

For more tips about blogging, and using WordPress.com, see these posts in the Reporter’s Guide to Multimedia Proficiency:

• RGMP 2: Start a blog
• RGMP 9: Add photos to your blog

Resources and examples:

• The New York Times blog index lists more than 50 blogs.
• When Journalists Blog: How It Changes What They Do: Results of a survey of 200 journalists in 30 countries (2008).
• 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.
• Baghdad Bureau blog: Behind the scenes with New York Times reporters who are in Baghdad.
• Mortarboard: A blog about education (local and global) from The Guardian.
• The Swamp: Behind the scenes with reporters from the Tribune Co.who are in the Washington, D.C., bureau.
• The Daily Nightly: This blog is written by the anchors and reporters of the NBC Nightly News, one of the premier TV news organizations in the U.S. Each day the blog posts take us behind the scenes in the newsroom.
• Teaching Online Journalism is Mindy's blog.

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. It saves time by putting everything in one place.

Copyright © 2009 Mindy McAdams | University of Florida