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People read to have their prejudices confirmed. And they don't trust some unknown blogger. If you are smart and want to explain yourself in the blogosphere what do you do?
As you may or may not be aware I have spent a good deal of my spare time this past year blogging about COP15 and the UN MDGs for the European Journalism Center. As the latter project was about to end I decided to collect some words of wisdom from a handful of the top bloggers. How and why do they manage to write interesting articles about a subject most people just want to close their eyes to? You can read all answers in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd interview. Or you can check my selection of goodies below - beginning with their answers to a few bonus questions.
Who is to the MDGs what the deniers and big oil was to COP15? That is: Who or what is our crook? Our object of scorn. Do we need one at all? In my experience readers prefer a simple conflict.
Clare Herbert: The enemy of the MDGs is apathy, among politicians particularly but the public too. People simply aren't interested in development, in the way that would cause real change.
Hemant Jain: Bill Gates. He single handedly poses a threat to world food security by his connections with Monsanto. Posing as a do-gooder, he wooes governments and makes a fool of people.
Giedre Steikunaite: The problem is obviously very complex, and big oil hasn't gone anywhere, either. Our main enemies are greed, vanity and stupidity, but how does one impersonate these? :) I think it mainly comes down to the governments, as they're the ones making decisions on who gets what and who gets nothing, and in what ways. If governments become hostages of big corporations and their business interests, well that's the governments' fault for they had allowed this to happen. In a globalised world, it seems that countries are becoming businesses themselves, desperately trying to attract foreign investment which quite often is very damaging to their very own environment and their people. And it's always the people, especially the most vulnerable ones, who pay the price. Another issue is uniform solutions to the world's problems. We don't want everything to be a copy of a copy of a copy, do we?
The official coordinated NGO campaigns run positive feel-good stories only. About how far development efforts have come. They call it "Best News in the World" or something like that. What do you think of the feel-good campaign from the NGOs?
Hemant Jain: It's like 350.org. Does more harm than good. There is nothing much to write home about till the time governments spend more on war than on development. Period.
Giedre Steikunaite: It's important to have some positive examples, for they can inspire further action (as in "See? It's not impossible!"). But the danger here is that these stories might distort the image of reality - if we rest assured all is going well, why bother anymore? So I think it's important to keep a balance and show people that even though some progress is being made, it does not mean there's nothing left to improve. Are we there yet? No. Yet? No. People have to realize this, but also they have to have a sense that the direction is right, only more effort is needed.
Why do you do it? Spend hours researching and writing just for a few hundred hits to your blog while millions read tabloid nonsense every single day?
Clare Herbert: Getting a writing job in the 21st century requires a good blog, complete with a bulging portfolio and lots of skill. I think good debate and incisive comment is always worthwhile and blogging gives me an opportunity to write on my terms.
Johan Knols: It challenges me to focus and it gives me a feeling to be on top of things.
Bart Knols: My entire scientific career I have published in professional journals, and never had an opportunity to reflect, provoke, stimulate, and enthuse the broader public about what I do in writing. Blogging is an ideal tool for this.
What do you think are the basic ingredients of a story/article? What elements do you see too often in other writers' news or blogs that you don't like?
Iris Cecilia Gonzales: I believe that issues should have a face. I like human interest stories.
Clare Herbert: Writing for the web is about being short, pithy and incisive. No-one reads long articles online. When you've written your article, halve it before publication.
Bart Knols: The basic ingredients for me centre around 'the message' and 'conciseness'. Bringing a message that is highly gripping and thought-provoking with less than 500 words is my aim. I have come across many blogs that merely copied a website and added two sentences. To me, that's not blogging.
Giedre Steikunaite: I cannot stand when articles contain grammatical errors, typos, twenty five different fonts and colours, with no clear structure, or copy/paste style. For me, that's evidence that the author has no respect for their readers, and so I never comment or even read such pieces. The main ingredient for a good story: it has to make you think.
Daniel Nylin Nilsson: I think the personal involvement is a sine qua non in all writing. I see way to many disinterested articles, that simply forward something that has been written somewhere else, with minimalistic editing. It might be a really interesting topic, but I still find it dull to read.
Hemant Jain: Nobody wants to be bored. Simply. Let me explain: A good informative story is competing with many other things. Like advertising. Those are attractive messages designed to get your attention. And a good story will lose out on the attention if it doesn't pull people in. If you see the website 'information is beautiful', of Good magazine, you'll see what I mean. They present the most boring inofrmation in most interesting ways.
I think a good blog must do that.
Johan Knols: Correct spelling, not too much distraction in the form of different fonts and colouring. In my opinion it is nice when a post breathes the opinion of the writer. Blogposts can and often should have the signature of the writer in it to increase the debate.
The September 2010 UN MDG summit is over now. But TH!NK3 will continue for some time. Tune in to get much more high quality blogging about development issues and the UN effort. Personally I have decided to spend some more time at Ecowar.
