JOURNALCON!: It was fun. I was hugely busy and sleepless, and so I was only able to be there for my own personal panel, on the nexus of personal blogging and professional life. But the people were great and the questions were fun. A couple superbrief observations: 1) This is the first blog-oriented crowd I’ve ever been in that was about 80% women. Welcome to the wild world of things that aren’t political blogging….

2) I was the bad girl: I did one journalism internship and one year-long reporting job, but I’m not sure I’ve ever sent a query letter, so my journalistic life has been sharply different from pretty much everyone else’s. That makes my advice suspect, I should think.

I do have three pieces of advice that I think apply across the board: a) Do not bother going to j-school. Just get out there and report.

b) Google is smart and your pseudonym is probably not. Nobody on our panel had ever had a job, since starting their blogs, where no one had connected employee to blog. Someone will find you, so keep that in mind. Gossip is one of the most basic human currencies.

c) Relatedly, be aware that these days journalism is an intriguing, philosophically rich, but sometimes crude blend of personal and political life. Many employers will view your public persona as an icon. You need to be an icon they can justify keeping on payroll. Readers (or at least editors) these days seek out vivid characters who can show how their perspective colors every action, from music preferences to voting choices. I really like the way blog-influenced journalism emphasizes the personal touch, a kind of continuity in all aspects of the journalist’s life. That seems to me a necessary corrective to the fake, plastic “objectivity” (which always seems to mean conformity and conventional wisdom) that journalism sometimes affects. However, if your public, online persona incorporates aspects of your personal life that will get your employer nasty letters, you are very likely to become a liability rather than an asset. So, you know, forewarned is half an octopus. It’s weird how many people need to hear this: If you worry that somebody might find your blog, he already has.



3) Every single person on my panel was a comics fan! This was too awesome. I shared the Planetes love; of which more soon.

My deepest thanks to the people who finagled my spot at JournalCon–it was a great time and I wish I could have stayed.