Published 30 January 2009 · Main Posts blogging and journalism Jeff Sparrow Margaret Simons has an interesting piece about how much blogging has changed journalists’ perception of their work. Paul Bradshaw says this of his survey: As I pored over the results, I was surprised at just how much these journalists felt their work had been changed by the simple act of blogging. I had expected some effect on their relationship with the “former audience,” but what surprised me most was when more than half of the blogging journalists said this relationship had been “enormously” or “completely” transformed. In most cases, the journalists’ reaction seems largely positive. I did, however, note this response: Well, you never finish, do you? You write something that may or may not spark a conversation, and you’ve got to be ready for that conversation even if it happens months later. If you’re blogging from home, that sense of never finishing is probably a good thing. But if you’re a professional journalist, it might well have other connotations. It would be interesting to know how many people working in the media saw the interactivity of blogging as simply adding to their responsibilities. Not only do you write your story but you’re expected to post it somewhere and then respond, often on your own time, to anyone who comments. Jeff Sparrow Jeff Sparrow is a Walkley Award-winning writer, broadcaster and former editor of Overland. More by Jeff Sparrow › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 16 August 202416 August 2024 · Poetry pork lullaby Panda Wong but an alive pig / roots in the soil /turning it over / with its snout / softening the ground / is this a hymn 28 March 20249 April 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body.