U.S. Study Institute on Journalism and Media

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:

Resources and examples:

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

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.