Blogging the News
Print, With its Pleasures, Will Not Die Out; But There’s Lots More to Find
Sep 01, 2007
My idea of perfect happiness is this: It is late Saturday morning, and I am having a leisurely breakfast with fresh bread and a strong cup of tea, reading the newspaper, an activity which may last well into the afternoon or until Sunday, depending on the newspaper.
People claim that they read newspapers for the information they provide, but that is not the full story. I read newspapers because of the pleasures they provide, as I like being surprised, challenged, moved, inspired, stimulated, amused and tickled.
When I was living in Manhattan, a perfect Saturday entailed reading the The New York Times, which is several inches thick. When I lived in London, it meant reading the Guardian or The Independent. In Vienna I have to read several papers to reach a similar volume of experience. Weather permitting, this activity may extend to my personal idea of the great outdoors – such as lying on a blanket in Central Park, or sitting in a park café like the Palmenhaus in the Burggarten. When I read my Saturday paper, I usually start with the sections covering culture, lifestyle, movie and book reviews, fashion and properties and gradually work my way to the news sections.
I enjoy the written content just as much as photography and good design. It is because of those kinds of pleasures – pleasures that a good newspaper read can provide – that print will not go away that quickly, no matter what some Internet gurus may predict.
However, on the other hand, my passion for weblogs is growing. Recently I have opened an account with Bloglines.com, a free online service, which enables subscriptions to blogs. I now regularly scan the headlines of new entries and read the ones that I am interested in. I save the posts worth keeping in my del.icio.us account, a social book-marking manager made for the purpose.
People ask how I find anything worth reading? You just have to find one weblog that you find interesting; then you find the others. Usually bloggers refer to other interesting blogs through lists of links, called blogroll and by referring to other blogs within their postings. Some blogs act as filters, providing a digest of noteworthy information all over the Internet.
Through regular scanning and surfing, soon enough one will have found more weblogs than one can keep up with on a regular basis. Weblogs serve my eclectic tastes and varied interests. [Politburo] written by a group of Austrian journalists provides me with regular dose of political gossip, irreverent comments and anarchic jokes. ‘Dark Roasted Blend’ features stunning photography and ‘The World of Kane,’ retro eye candy from the world of pop. The ‘Proceedings from the Athanasius Kircher Society’ supplies a blend of science and the surreal. And these are just four of the 83 blogs I have subscribed to so far.
Blogging is starting to change my Saturdays. Now I read blogs, but also write blog entries myself. My local park café offers WLAN for their customers. Find me there with my laptop for my perfect Saturday.