Blogging Best Practices

The blog I chose to review was a current events blog called “Who What Why: We don’t cover news- We uncover truth.” The blog consists of articles written on various national and worldwide events, however the authors work to approach these stories from an angle different than that of the mainstream media while striving to reveal the underlying context behind each of the stories. The article I read to glean insight into the substance and structure of this blog was entitled, “America’s Policy: War Now, Justifications Later” (McNamara, 2014).

In my observation, this blog does an exceptional job at putting complex world issues into terms that a mass audience can easily understand. What makes the blog particularly effective at communicating information, especially to those who may not be well-versed in the topic at hand, is the fact that it does not simply present evidence to support and explain each article. Instead, the blog takes it a step further by skillfully embedding links within the text of the article to enable readers to easily access critical background information that helps quickly bring any reader up to speed on the underlying pieces of the story that help put it into its full context.  The authors’ straightforward, easily digestible prose, coupled with the links to backstory information is constructed in such a way that it assumes the audience knows very little about the event being discussed, which is why it is so effective at communicating these complex stories.

Since blogging is a much more open-ended and more loosely regulated means of publishing than mainstream media online reporting, I think one of the most essential blogging best practices is, the need to support any content that is published on a blog with evidence that is readily accessible to the audience. It can be much more difficult to assess the validity of information provided in a blog format, so providing quick links to the various sources that were used is all the more important when communicating information via this particular medium.  In addition, it is important not to write in an overly technical manner and instead use language and arrange the story in a way that is easy for people from very divergent professional backgrounds to understand.

Link to Blog: http://whowhatwhy.com

References

McNamara, R. (2014, October 21). America's policy: War now, justifications later [Web log post]. Retrieved October 25, 2014, from http://whowhatwhy.com