I got a lot out of the latest module from the module "Developing a Successful Journalistic Blog, mainly because I hadn't read something like it before. I didn't have a blog before taking JOUR 4932, so this has been a work in progress for me. The highlights from what I read included the "elements of successful blogs" and of course "ethical & legal considerations."

To me, and hopefully to most journalists, ethics are the most important thing in reporting. If you don't have ethical standards, what exactly do you have? During my internship this past summer, I encountered a few ethical issues in my reporting. I won't bore you with the details, but the thing I learned is that you won't make everyone happy no matter what you do. The important thing is to be balanced with coverage and leave the rest to everyone else.

Of the five "elements" the module presents, I think "focus" and "community" are the two most important values in a successful blog. Being the sports editor for the Marquette Tribune since February, I have heard quite often from different people outside the newspaper what they would like to read about. A lot of them would like us to focus more on club sports. The Tribune's focus has always been to give top priority to varsity sports at Marquette, but club sports play a big role in the community aspect at Marquette. The combination of a focus on club sports has lead to more readership and has helped our section become more successful and reader-friendly.

I think the most important thing I have learned so far about becoming a successful blogger is to act professionally and keep my posts on task. It is easy to stray from relevancy if you aren't careful and then people aren't going to want to read the blog. If you write about stories that matter, more people are going to read it. It's that simple.

The module as a whole gave me a lot to think about. How can I make my blog better? From examples like what to write blogs about to how to write headlines, "Developing a Successful Journalistic Blog" has given me a lot of ideas to work on improving my blog.



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    I am a senior journalism major and political science minor in the Diederich College of Communications at Marquette University in Milwaukee. I work as the sports editor for the Marquette Tribune and interned with the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa the past summer.

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