this is a very interesting read–and connundrum! I sat in yestarday on a teleconference for Marketing 2.0 (a marketer’s group that’s focusing on new-conversational media) where marketers expressed concern that their blogs might sound too much like marketing-speak. Many people in a variety of professions are finding that how one effectively communicates out in the blogosphere is different from the current standards of professional communications.

Some of the best advice offered the marketers–and I’d like to offer it to your students is to lurk. Just hang out reading all sorts of blogs and note all the different communication styles. And don’t get hung up on whether or not the blog has comments–look more for how long the person has been blogging. If a person’s been at it for well over a year, chances are they are effectively communicating with a particular audience–no one keeps blogging if there’s no audience-reward of some kind.

I certainly wouldn’t *discourage* students from blogging about topics beyond a “niche,” but for the purposes of working with a blog in a college media environment, it often helps to get students to focus on a particular area for the bulk of their blog posting.

I am quite sympathetic to what you’re saying. It’s more in the spirit of traditional (if I can use that term) blogging, but I’m also cognizant of the strictures of a college media outlet, where authority and top-down communication seems to be pervasive.

I’m curious about what others are doing in this area. When I assign blog posts for classes, I usually try to steer them in a direction. All students are not necessarily going to take to the freewheeling blog format, so a niche helps them stay on track and focus.

i approach it quite differently – i encourage them to blog about as much as possible – journalist pieces, sure, but also about their classes, their families, their social lives, books they’ve read that made a difference, songs they’ve heard or movies they’ve seen that make them reflect, etc.

i understand that it’s common wisdom that a “successful” blog sticks with one topic but i feel that is at odds with everything we know about what makes a “successful” students. in my mind, curiosity is key – and curiosity often travels in multiple directions. i’d be curious to hear what you think of this.