I started this blog because I wanted a different forum for my ideas, thoughts and comments. As a scholar of journalism, the time lag of academic publishing (measured in months or years) often feels particularly frustrating as my object of study exists in a totally different time frame (measured in hours or even seconds). A blog is different. A blog allows me to publish topical commentary while it is still topical. A blog gives me the opportunity to field-test ideas as I get them. And above all, a blog allows for feedback from a wider circle of people.Gahd! What a load of crapola! Have I ever commented on something topical (OK, I have, but not often)? I don't even want to comment on something topical, I am a media historian, I want to comment on things that happened a hundred years ago. If it happened two hundred years ago, even better - twice as good, in fact. As for the rest, when have I ever "field-tested ideas as I get them" on this blog? I sure managed to sound both naive and pretentious at the same time with that one. I don't think I've made a single post directly related to my actual research project. It all started out with the best of intentions, as the road to Hell always does. I didn't want to have another "I think"-blog, I wanted an "I know"-blog, or even a "Someone other than me knows even better"-blog. What does it matter what I think? There is no shortage of pundits pontificating about the media, substituting anecdotes and case-of-one sociology for evidence. I wanted this to be different! I wanted this to be about the facts, what we actually know about media and journalism. And evidently, I wanted it to be boring. I'm having a blog crisis, as you can see. I want to continue blogging, mostly because the Internet is full of ex-bloggers, and I don't want to become one of them. I am not a one-hit wonder, I'm a fellow at Oxford for chrissakes! So I am going to have to change the way I write. I have no particular plan for how, other than "not being boring" being high up on the agenda. One reason I am a media scholar is that I (surprise, surprise) enjoy it, so I think I'll start by posting stuff I enjoy writing, rather than writing because I feel a ton of Lutheran guilt weighing on me. Lutheran guild is not quite as guilty as Catholic guilt, but on the other hand I can't get absolution, which actually increases the weight of the guilt in real terms. So, dear readers (hi, mom!), prepare for the relaunch of doctorofjournalism.com, coming soon to a browser near you. I promise more excitement, more upskirt pictures of Britney Spears and all those other things that make the study of media and journalism so rewarding. As soon as I figure out how to post links to documents I'll put up a paper I recently submitted to a conference for your delectation. It has to do with my research project, and who knows? Maybe I'll even get some feedback on it. Maybe my blog will become interesting for advertisers because I've used the phrase "upskirt pictures of Britney Spears" twice in this post. See you on the funny pages, everyone.
So it has come to this…
April 30th, 2008 · 13 Comments
...I'm blogging about my blogging. It can't be helped. It can't be avoided. Everyone does it. Endless self-referentiality and navel-gazing is, after all, what the blogosphere is all about. I'd better just accept it.
So, here it is: I haven't posted here in over a month, partly because parenthood has been keeping me busy, but also, I confess, because I have made my own blog so mind-numbingly boring. If it's boring to write, then it's boring to read, so I am not only boring my readers, I am boring myself as well. I've increasingly found it difficult to come up with something interesting to say - heck, I've found it difficult to come up with something uninteresting to say, and as a career academic you'd think I would have mastered uninteresting by now. This is bad.
I mean, look at this (from my "About" page):
Tags: Blogging
13 responses so far ↓
Martin Börjesson // Apr 30, 2008 at 5:55 pm
So you think you’re blog is boring and suffer from self-referential navel-gazing! Just look at this comment! It has no other purpose than to be a smart-ass comment to your self-reference vommiting, and how boring isn’t that!
I agree with you totally (but referring to my own comments) so I will also start a project which is aimed at navigating away from Boringistan to a coconut and palm infested island of fun and excitement. From now on my comments will be much more funny and ingenious! And I will start now!! Right away!!!
I just have to make some real thorough analysis of what is really funny and exciting. So I don’t turn up in Boringistan again. So first I will make a structural analysis of what is fun and interesting. Or should it be a hermeneutic analysis? No, of course! I have to use Critical Theory!! That is the way to go!!!
Are you still reading this? Then I think you suffer from some serious netoholic symptom… And maybe have some real need of feedback!
And here you get some!
And I know, blogging without feedback is hard!
Good luck, Henrik!
Peter Nordstrand // Apr 30, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I am mostly shocked to learn that you consider yourself a Lutheran. Please read http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/113.
However, I do agree that it is imperative that you enjoy what you do here. Best wishes!
Henrik // May 1, 2008 at 6:08 am
I guess I meant Lutheran in some notional sense, as Sweden (where I am born and grew up) is notionally Lutheran. Being Swedish, it would perhaps been more appropriate to write “secular-humanist-generally-socialist” guilt, but it lacks punch.
maria // May 1, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Well now… Absolution is most definitely a possibility even in Lutheran churches, we even kept confession, you know (though as a result of us throwing out the booths, no one knows we kept it, which is a bit of a bummer), so we can deal with that guilt part next time we meet ;o)
But what I wonder most is where the upskirt photos are?
Henrik // May 2, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Sorry, I got the absolution thing wrong. Now I know that Catholicism and Lutheranism is pretty much the same, right
?
Incidentally, the “upskirt photos of Britney Spears” so far has generated around 40 new items of blog spam here at doctorofjournalism.com.
John Kelly // May 6, 2008 at 9:26 am
This may possibly be the best blog posting about blogging that I’ve ever seen. I think there’s a market for T-shirts emblazoned with the words: “Naive and pretentious at the same time.”
I empathize with your crisis and thank you for making it so entertaining.
Glenda Cooper // May 6, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Have to echo John’s remark about this being the best blog posting about blogging I have ever seen. As someone born into a Welsh Presbyterian family, I identify with the Lutheran aspect; don’t let the Catholics have it all their own way….post-Reformation religions can have guilt too….
Sarah Laurence // May 7, 2008 at 9:52 am
Don’t be so hard on yourself - it’s a blog not a peer-reviewed paper. It’s meant to be fun. If posting daily is too much work, then post weekly. That’s what I do so I can focus more on family, friends and work rather than living my own life vicariously through my blog. This post is funny - so go with it.
laura // May 8, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I laughed so many times reading this- I guess if you ARE a high brow writer, then those feelings of “jumping the shark” are gut-wrenching.
I, on the other hand, know that I jump the shark just about every 3rd time I post.
But, I still sleep okay.
Hysterical post. Summon that muse again.
Amanda Lucas // May 14, 2008 at 4:14 am
Erm, I don’t want to see upskirt pictures of Britney Spears (there you go, three times, show me the money!) … well I do, but not here. I met you briefly last year when my field trip from Australia called into the Reuters Institute. I’ve added your blog to my favourites because I want to absorb some waves from that brilliant brain of yours. Write whatever you like, whenever you like … but you’re only boring yourself because you’re used to your own genius!
Henrik // May 14, 2008 at 11:08 am
Wow, for the first time in my blog’s history I’ve generated some genuine flattery! Thank you, Amanda!
Mild mannered alter ego // May 14, 2008 at 3:24 pm
If blogging was easy, anyone could do it. Oh wait, never mind…
But keep in mind - you are allowed to moan about how difficult it is to write your column ONCE in your career. So now that you have it out of the way…
Henrik // May 14, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Yes, I well and truly played that card, didn’t I? And only a year in, too…
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