Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. 376 Journalism: Publishing Across Media With a small group, make a list of 10 topics about which you have opinions or about which you have made complaints or comments. For each of the opinions, complaints or comments, describe research or perspectives that would turn the topic into a journalistic blog. Example (so far this is a personal complaint): Why do all of our teachers have to assign big projects due the last week before Christmas break? I have papers or projects in five classes, all due in the last three days! To make it a topic for a journalistic blog, you would need to talk with teachers who make such assignments. If you find that they assign such projects because Christmas break gives them time to correct them, you could write a humorous piece about how all of you stress out to submit the projects before the holiday but the teachers go home with their rolling luggage full of essays to grade during the holiday. Your Turn Wi th In professional publications, bloggers are often limited to one range of topics. In your publication, your viewers should know whose blog to read for commentary on softball, the academic decathlon, the child care class or the culinary arts class. For successful journalistic blogging, remember these guidelines. • Post commentary regularly so that the audience keeps looking to your blog for new material. Stale blogs should be archived, usually with a link on the blogger’s page to the older stories. • Good writing garners readers. Bad writing bores. • The same is true for photos and videos. Do not waste your audience’s time. • Develop a voice for your blog. • Sound, slide shows and videos also may have a distinct voice. Editorial Illustrations and Cartoons Editorial Illustrations and Cartoons Though photographs are relatively rare in editorial and opinion sections, these sections are not visually uninteresting columns of text. Editorial illustrations and editorial cartoons add visual interest and depth to the writing and to the section. Both types of editorial work cause the viewer to think. They both need to be clearly and cleanly drawn, whether by hand or by computer. Technically, an editorial illustration and an editorial cartoon are different. An editorial illustration enriches an op-ed piece and is meant to draw the readers or viewers into the article and to emphasize its point (Figure 12.7). An editorial cartoon, on the other hand, may be about a new topic not already discussed in writing or provide a new viewpoint on a topic that has been discussed. An editorial cartoon is frequently critical of the subjects it portrays and almost always attempts to make a single, pointed comment about the issue being discussed (Figure 12.8 on page 378).