What is Ham Journalism?

What is Ham Journalism?

There's something we bloggers have in common, regardless of whether we belong to the upper or lower castes (and cases) of Journalism. Or to both. We are all, each and every one of us, many things; but we are all writers. That's what we do here. We write.

"Little" journalism is a hobby. Bloggers do it for the fun and the love of the writing about something that interests them. More often than not, the blogger's site is a not-for-profit outfit. With the exceptions of people like Dave Winer who blog about their company and products, many bloggers are in it for the hobby.

That's not to say that people like Dave aren't having fun while they blog, it's just that they're not blogging about a specific product that they have an interest in selling and marketing.

Maybe that's not even what sets apart bloggers from Journalism. "Big" Journalists are on deadlines set by their publication. In the case of newspapers, stories might be rushed out, clipped, edited and twisted around to fit the story around an ad.

Bloggers, however, do it on a casual basis. They're not constrained by space requirements. They're not trying to cut their article down to one fit it around an ad. With this easy-going pace also comes speed. Current tools allow someone to post a message to their blog from almost anywhere in the world and have the upper hand with the speed that information flows from their brain to a public site.

In the end, bloggers are in it for the fun. They come from all different backrounds and all levels of technical expertise. Web designers, programmers, teachers, Journalists, marketing geeks -- everyone.

Long has the promise of the Net been a rennaisance in personal publishing. Anyone can become a publisher, and anyone can put stuff on a page somewhere to be seen. With blogging, the blogger also dons the hats of editor and writer, picking and choosing interesting items they may have read and found interesting.

The real heart of blogging are conversations between bloggers. Information exchange. Data flow. Brain swap, if you will. Enlightenment.

I liken my experiences with blogging to my first experiences with Amateur Radio, when I first got my license when I was in seventh grade. There were people from all walks of life, all interested in the same hobby, all for different reasons. What other hobby brings people together like this?

I had a sense of exhilaration the first time I keyed up my mic, spoke my callsign, and lept feet-first into a conversation. The people didn't know who I was, or even my name, but they were willing to listen and respond. During the months between when I passed my V.E. exam and when I received my callsign, I would tune into different repeaters, listening to people, learning callsigns, and learning people's names and voices.

Over time, people would recognize me by my callsign and my voice. The local repeaters served the local Minneapolis metropolitan area, so it was eventual that I'd meet some of the voices coming out of the speaker.

So here I am, 10 years after getting my callsign, doing the process all over again. Jumping into conversations, meeting people, and learning voices.

With the advent of the Net, interest in Ham Radio has waned. The airwaves aren't as crowded as they once were. People quit the hobby. It takes less technical expertise to meet people and talk to them nowadays.

The hobby hasn't died. In fact, I think it's still living on with blogging.

"Ham Journalism," if you will.