Mark Finkelstein

I found Mark Finkelstein's presentation on Tuesday to be an interesting discussion on blogging the news. His presentation went more into how he blogs about the news than last time, and I found the discussion on the way his website gained hits important information for those who are planning to establish their own websites. His noting that some of his hits came from anti-semitic "wacko" sites was a fascinating detail, especially given that I had spent part of my internship at The Ithaca Journal last semester creating spreadsheets based on data about where traffic to the website came from. It was interesting to hear about him making money from his blog, but it would have been worthwhile for him to note that he works as a landlord, and that not all bloggers can post on their sites for a living.

I wholeheartedly agreed with Finkelstein's advice to write outside of class. In addition to my work for The Ithacan, I am considering writing a blog on living in Ithaca, per former Ithaca College professor Michael Scully's advice at last semester's job search workshop. The blog would serve as a way of hosting my writing, provide links to some of my articles, and enable me to continue writing while I am searching for a job.

However, I still disagree with his opinions on the political bias. While the story on Sarah Palin's daughter's ex-boyfriend was a clear case of wasting news resources on a story with no news value, it does not necessarily reflect liberal bias on the media's part. It is more due to the news media seeing the Palin story as what Project Censored terms "junk food news"- news that does little to inform the public, but is popular among news consumers, particularly most celebrity news. While Finkelstein admits that he is a conservative republican, he was not as willing to concede the possibility of the media being influenced by conservative biases or conservative influences. While I may not agree with this part of his ideals, or his blogging to expose only the liberal tilt of the mainstream media, I personally found his talk informative and a good look how to blog full-time.