For MMC 2100, students are to create a blog and post entries for several days. We’ve said that the blog should be a professional blog and not a personal blog. We’ve said that the blog should focus on their reporting experiences for two recent MMC 2100 assignments.

One student after class wanted me to clarify.

“If I’m writing about my own experiences reporting, how is that different from just a personal blog?”

Good point. I explained that many media outlets now are having reporters and editors blog about the reporting and writing process — explaining how decisions are made and what’s involved in getting a story. Media outlets are calling this transparency and hoping that the audience will consider the media less biased and more reasoned if they how how decisions are made.

In the MMC 2100 blog, the student is providing that kind of transparency — how decisions were made and what was involved. As a class, we discussed the importance of diplomacy in public writing. If a student wanted to tell the story of a potential source who didn’t respond to requests to be interviewed or a a source who was unhelpful or rude, best not to name names.