There's an interesting article in the current issue of
The Atlantic about
the future of the neswpaper. Rather than seeing the web as the death of traditional media, the article offers up the idea that editors and writers will become independent brands-- a cross between blogger, professional journalist and social network administrator and that publications will use these brands to feed readers to their traditional media sites.
One of the interesting points brought up by the article is that, in the future, the news will happen first on the web and readers will then go to traditional media for the analysis and commentary. Well, the future is now. The Carol Channing story I covered here last week as news, will show up as a news analysis in the next issue of
Frontiers. I posted the emails and statements I got from Channing and her publicist here because it was news, but also as an experiment to see what would happen if I linked my work in the magazine with what I do online.
I'm really reticent about blogging. To be good at it, you have to post ten-twenty times a day and I wrte for a living already-- adding to the workpile to have a blog seems a lot like vanity. But I'm curious what would happen if I broke down the barriers between this site and the rest of my work-- if I treated it not as a seperate project and entity, but as a sort of Grand Central Station of all the various projects I have. It's a truism that a writer is part magician-- you should never let the audience see what goes on behind the curtain. I think it might be interesting to experiment in being a transparent artist and journalist. Rather than showing just the final product, also allow the process to be a part of the work as well.
This will undoubtedly be a messy endeavour, but I'm going to start implementing some of the ideas of
The Atlantic article, as well as a few of my own and see what happens.
