What’s a Blog?

A more difficult question has never been asked. That is, of course, if you ignore the age old question of, “What the hell is a provost?” About the only thing that blogs and provosts have in common is that both require complex definitions that will make your head spin.

Never one to reinvent the wheel, I consulted the interpipes and discovered a definition of blogs that I rather like, courtesy of Blogger:

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

Central to this definition is the idea that there are no real rules when it comes to blogging. In contrast, the world of journalism has a lot of rules: we expect the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. We expect journalists and editors to be unbiased reporters of thoroughly researched cold, hard facts; they can save their opinions for the editorial, thank-you-very-much.

I should caution, however, that I think bloggers still need to be cautious in their reporting of information; no blogger should intentionally spread untrue information. If mistakes are made, they ought to be corrected.

Nevertheless, bloggers are entitled to share their opinions when discussing “news” items. Because bloggers (usually private citizens) are not competing in a global market with big time news corporations, it would be silly for them to post verbatim AP newswire bits (newswire bits, by the way, is a very technical term). What would be the point? Instead, bloggers provide commentary on information as it is presented to them (i.e. a blogger may read articles in the NY Times, Washington Post, etc. about Gov. Sarah Palin and then discuss her merits as a vice presidential candidate, either positively or negatively, or both).

This is not to say, however, that bloggers do not provide original news or information. For example, I have been recently reading Mudflats, a political blog based in Alaska, because “AKMuckraker” has been providing first hand accounts of and commentary on Gov. Sarah Palin rallies in AK; this information is not readily available in the mainstream media and I am thus interested.

Or, just this week on MiddBlog, Ryan reported that an anonymous tipster informed him of a revenue shortfall at Middlebury. As a blogger–and an opinionated one at that!–Ryan discussed his misgivings about this revenue shortfall and invited MiddBlog readers to chime in. If Ryan were a reporter for our illustrious Middlebury Campus, I would have expected Ryan to keep his personal thoughts to himself and to get on the horn with Ron Liebowitz for an interview. Admittedly, Ryan’s post posed more questions than it answered, but in the blogosphere, that’s okay. Ryan is a blogger, not a journalist.

This blog post has been obscenely long, but I think necessary to clarify expectations as to what a blog, MiddBlog in particular, is. In general, I think it’s important to keep in mind that MiddBlog is not an official news source like the Middlebury Campus. In fact, we at MiddBlog wholeheartedly encourage you to read the Middlebury Campus for a lot of important information about our favorite liberal arts institution. Stop by MiddBlog when you are interested in reading the thoughts of your fellow students, alumni/ae, and, yes, even administrators and parents. And, by all means, please feel free to add your voice to the chorus. Or not.

P.S. MiddBlog is also good for the occasional YouTube study break.