I have long been hard on journalism and journalists, which is why it may come as a surprise to some that I am writing a weblog about those subjects. In fact, some may think that this weblog is another attempt on my part to, in their view, attack journalism and journalists.
Quite to the contrary, I started taking journalism classes in the fall of 2007 as part of my ongoing education as a writer, and I believe that some essence of the ideas of journalism cannot help but become part of my writing. While I may disagree with some of the deeply held tenets of journalism, it is still writing, and as a result, it has something to teach.
I am actually in journalism classes at all because of the proxy advice of a friend. He was once a journalism student and a journalist himself, and he advised that his experience as a journalist was formative to his later writing. I believe that all writing experience can only help the writer, so I followed his advice and decided to take some classes.
What I have discovered so far is that I am still a detractor of journalism because I find its ideals unattainable and its fundamentals misguided; however, I have also discovered that journalistic writing has much to offer writers in general, especially when it comes to writing succinctly and in gathering information upon which writing will be based.
So, in a way, my writing is becoming journalistic, but not in the traditional sense. This weblog is dedicated to my pursuit to discover what parts of journalism I can fold into my own writing and what parts I cannot. It is my belief that, whatever conclusions I reach, the end result will be me as a more developed writer, which was my goal from the beginning.
