Blogging was set as an assignment on the core multiplatform journalism course at the UBC graduate journalism school, which meant every student had to blog for a few weeks whether or not they read blogs themselves. Reactions split: some welcomed being freed from the constraints of the traditional news pyramid, others treated it as one more piece of coursework.
The mechanics were not the point. The students already used WordPress, which powered their student publication TheThunderbird.ca. The exercise was about writing as a journalist in a form built for commentary — taking a topic or an urban beat in Vancouver and supplying context and perspective on the news rather than reporting it straight. Accuracy and fairness carry across; the tone does not, and the shift to a more personal, conversational voice was the part being taught.
Linking was treated as part of the same discipline. Working through what others had already written about a beat was how a student became part of the world they were covering, which is the distinction the course drew between being on the web and being of the web.
The post was written for January’s Carnival of Journalism, then hosted by Adrian Monck. One student from the previous year’s cohort had gone on to run a programme blog at CBC.ca over the summer, which was the practical argument for the assignment.