My experience with interactive media has been limited to social media sites, message boards at the bottom of online news articles and, in my classroom, the occasional remote Internet lecture. In other words, my idea of interactive media is generally limited to things like dinner plans and ignorant rants. Since I usually can’t afford investing time in that type of interaction, I’ve pretty much blown off interactive media.
Sometimes an old dog need a good challenge.
During a recent conference, a University of Missouri journalism professor asked a group of my students if they blog. A couple raised their hands. The professor said more than half of her students blog as a way of honing their craft. Okay, so professional competency may be a reason for me to write. But it’s no reason for you to want to read any of it. What could I write that would make you want to invest your valuable time reading it?
For an answer, I commissioned a small but tough focus group – me. I visit two online resources on a regular basis. One is the Associated Press newswire, which I have read nearly every day since I was 19 years old. The other is the “Ask Vic” column at Jaguars.com. I have the journalist gene, so the AP makes sense. But “Ask Vic” attracts me for other reasons. I’m a Jaguars fan so the content interests me. But that’s not enough to make it a habit. It’s a habit because there’s often a nugget of wisdom that makes me think beyond football, a life lesson that stays with me for the rest of the day. That’s worth 10-minutes of my time.
So what could I say that would be worth your 10-minute investment every few weeks or so? I was conditioned during my years as a journalist to keep my opinions to myself. But that experience also gave me a perspective on how we receive and process information from the incessant barrage of media messages that bombard us almost every waking hour. It may be valuable to take a few minutes here and there to step back and consider the effect some of those messages have on us.
I have no intention of telling anyone what to think. But with a little luck, I might prompt you to do what I ask of my students – keep an open mind and think. Sometimes I might challenge you. I’ll probably anger you once in a while, too. And I might even surprise you occasionally and “make nice.” Maybe there will be a nugget of wisdom here and there that stays with you for the rest of the day. But, in the best scenario, the blog should be a starting point for you to continue the conversation.
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