We Want Media

When I launched my media news aggregation site I Want Media in the summer of 2000, the word blog didn't exist, to my knowledge. Today, blogs seem ascendant and unstoppable.

Growing numbers of traditional news outlets are launching blogs or incorporating blog-like features into their online offerings. Journalists are creating blogs and trawling blogs for stories. More and more readers are responding to blogs' interactivity, unfiltered voice and increasing cultural clout.

Only four out of the 18 aspiring journalists in this Digital Journalism course read a print newspaper every day (so they tell me). Meanwhile, a handful of these undergrads already are enthusiastic bloggers. A student in our first session observed: "It seems like we're in the Age of the Blog."

The students in this course are members of the multitasking Millennial Generation. (I'm a Baby Boomer -- tail end.) Many of them enter the classroom each week checking messages on their cell phones. They use Craigslist and communicate with friends via MySpace and Facebook. (I've already learned that "My Internet connection was out" is this generation's version of "The dog ate my homework.")

They say that they're still fans of television news, print magazines and other "old" media. But the blog is the topic du jour and an obvious platform in which to analyze all types of media in this age of ever-expanding communications.

What do we like -- and not like -- in print, online and on the air? We aim to explore our dynamic media world via We Want Media.