Scott Simon on blogs

Nov 15, 2003

As he’s wont to do on Saturday mornings, NPR’s Scott Simon riffed on a current event or theme. Today’s topic was a reflection on inane Web logs, or blogs. Unfortunately, Simon’s essay missed the boat: he more or less condenses blogs down to the lowest common denominator, kind of like if I was to ignore thought-provokers like Simon and instead dismiss radio essayists on the weaknesses of AM talk radio blowhards (you know who I’m talking about). I was incensed. Scott, there may be a lot of inane weblogs, but there are also deep and insightful weblogs like those of my friend John Ettorre or fellow Tar Heel Blogger Sid Stafford. All blogs are not the same, even if the delivery vehicle is the same.

This Thursday I’ll be making a presentation about weblogs and journalism to a group of visiting journalists from Korea. Next month, I’ll discuss weblogs and education with a group of UNC faculty members interested in technology matters. In January, I’ll help put on a two-day weblogs and journalism seminar for journalists in North and South Carolina. And then in February, I hope, a group of us will pull off an NC Bloggers Conference.

While I’m focused on blogging, I’m also still pulling together plans to have a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter come to campus to talk about HIV/AIDS in Africa, as well as plans to invite the director of A Closer Walk to campus to present his moving documentary about HIV/AIDS around the world.

And, of course, I have my academic studies. And a baby on the way. And more. So there’ll be plenty to blog about in the next months. And Scott, I hope to not bore you.

Anton Zuiker ☄