Reporter covering Iraq mold blogs and stories

I remember when a military reporter from the San Antonio Express-News embedded with our unit in Iraq for a month, and along with his normal stories for the News section of the newspaper and Web site, he also published a blog. He used the blog as an extension for his news reporting – he wrote about his impressions of Iraq: the sights, smells and sounds of war. But he went beyond that, and wrote stories for his blog that wouldn’t be printed in the newspaper. For example, he wrote a story for the front page about two helicopter pilots who were about to turn 60 years old, were best friends and roommates. In his blog, though, he wrote about their experiences in Vietnam, and how they felt about the current war.

 

A missing soldier finally comes home

While many soldiers are stuck in airports right now trying to come home, Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin has finally made a hero’s return to Ohio. Maupin has been declared Captured/Missing in Action for the past four years.

I wonder if Balad Air Base in Iraq will now rededicate the Staff Sgt. Matthew Maupin Library and Computer room. I spent quite a few hours in that room talking to family and friends – its only fitting that now he can be with his own.

Bring the troops home…from the airport

The Air Force Times has posted a sad story , and one that I can relate to. With the airlines declaring bankruptcy due to the cost of rising gas prices and the laissez-faire economic policies of the Bush Administration, some military personnel coming home from Iraq for leave or for good are having their flights cancelled. Soldiers could be sitting in airports for up to a week.

I guess I should be glad when I came home on my leave that I only waited 45 minutes for a flight. After flying for 23 hours from Kuwait to Dallas, another 5-hour flight to Seattle wasn’t a problem!

Please write your airline and tell them to expedite getting the troops home – after 15 months of daily combat, waiting in the airport for another week would feel like an eternity for them.

Thanks David and Newsweek: Soldier’s Home

Soldier takes Army to court over atheistic beliefs

At CNN.com, a soldier filed a lawsuit against the Army over religious harrassment for being an atheist.

Spc. Jeremy Hall has been called “the atheist guy” by fellow soldiers, and has claimed persecution for his atheist beliefs while serving in both America and Iraq. Hall said:

“I see a name and rank and United States flag on their shoulder. That’s what I believe everyone else should see,” he said.

This is a problem because the troops in Iraq are already thinned out as it is, and we can’t lose another soldier to something as ridiculous as this. Right now, the Army can’t meet its recruiting quota, so they need every soldier they can get, atheist or not.

Every American has the right to practice whatever religion he or she wants, and that includes to practice the lack of a religion, as atheism would classify as. The Army should not allow this kind of behavior to happen from other soldiers. I hope Jeremy wins this case and receives the needed justice he deserves.

The ‘public beta’ without the ‘right spirits’

 

In 2005, the L.A. Times decided to try something revolutionary for an elite news outlet: they created a wikitorial, posting questions and comments from Times op/ed writers regarding the Iraq war, and let the readers write the commentary, with each person logging in next having the opportunity to change it however they seem fit. This is the model by now famous (or infamous) wikipedia, and needless to say, the blogosphere was excited to have an elite, paternal newspaper delve itself into the bowels of the everyday person and allow this type of interaction.

 

Journalism came first, blogging came second, third came…blogalism?

I wonder if the natural outcome of Shirky’s article about the mass amateurization of publishing is to now wonder what’s going to happen when blogs and Webzines become the scribes of the 1400s or the journalists of today. Will blogs themselves allow for their adaptation to the future?

 

Give me a blog and I’ll give you the news

If the 20^th century was the professionalization of journalism, then the 21^st century will be the re-emergence of the amateur eyewitness. These prophetic words are playing themselves out right now as mass media moves away from the professional and closer to the amateur. This move is happening for several reasons, and is best represented by Josh Benton’s “Curve of Journalistic Interestingness.”

           

Rewriting history is only a few blogs away

After reading Stefanac’s chapter on the brief history of open discourse, I am fascinated to think about how different the world would be if we had computers, the Internet and most importantly, blogs, since humanity’s beginnings.

 

Imagine if instead of Jesus passing on his knowledge to only the 12 disciples, he went online, went to his blog Web site, and posted his thoughts and feelings for the thousands of persecuted Christian and Jewish followers throughout the lands.

Webzine writing injects private thoughts into public voice

Philip E. Agre’s paper “Finding Your Voice: Writing For a Webzine” provides the reader exceptional points on how to pick up the proverbial “pen”, or in this case, click away on the “keyboard,” and start writing. Developing a public voice injected with private thoughts can be difficult for some, but it’s not impossible.

 

Agre said that first and foremost, that… “In order to have a public voice, you have to care about something.” (Agre, “Finding Your Voice,” 3). Once someone has figured out what their passion to write on will be, Agre transitions his article to 10 “rules of thumb” that every ‘zine writer should know.

 

World War II soldiers would love e-mail

I remember reading a book about the life of Ernie Pyle, who was a famous World War II combat correspondent. His gritty, realistic stories into the lives of the men fighting that war captivated a newspaper-dependent nation thousands of miles away. Mothers and wives hoped that Pyle would find their son or husband and write about him. Because the story was printed faster than mail, it was the fastest way for women to find out about their fighting men.