One of the benefits of affiliating with the National Association of Journalists is that we ran across the blog of Susan Cormier, one of the founders of the organization. Naturally, she writes a lot of stuff that’s designed to encourage bloggers and citizen journalists. In this post, she offers details from a study that encourages bloggers to do what we have advised: Write every day.
“Citizen news and blog sites can serve as complements to daily newspapers,” according to the study, Citizen Journalism Web Sites Complement Newspapers. “They can provide opinion and hyperlocal news that large dailies do not.”
But the study, published in the Spring 2010 issue of the Newspaper Research Journal, also acknowledged that citizen journalism websites are not a substitute for daily newspapers.
The conclusions were made after researchers from three American universities analyzed 53 citizen news sites, 86 citizen blog sites and 63 daily newspaper sites in 46 markets. One of the key factors in their analysis was whether the sites published on a daily basis.
Darn right. So, write, darn it.
Not every post has to be a long essay that proves exactly what is wrong with the city council, or what is wrong with the school board.
Sometimes, you just put up a link and comment. You do this because you want viewers to visit your site, because there will always be something new they can read. And when you do have that serious, long piece on your site, people will visit to read it.
And while you are at it, comment on the comments others make on your posts.
Tags: blogging, how-to, National Association of Journalists, Susan Cormier
