What it means to author a blog

Often, I get told when it comes to this kind of thing, "Write what you know."

So, I decided to focus on sports, since its a passion of mine and I might be able to fill a void by providing some analysis and coverage for the SJSU Spartans football team.

Sports blogs, for credibility's sake, have moved to the forefront of sports because they support vogue movements and ideals in sports, like sabermetrics and fantasy sports. They provide alternate outlets for analysis of sporting events and team performances, and give coverage to teams that don't recieve nearly enough of a look from other outlets.

Several sports blogs have gained major notoriety. Athletics Nation, which covers the Oakland A's, is frequently cited as one of the best in coverage for a sports blog. U.S.S. Mariner, which talks about the Seattle Mariners, often crunches statistics and numbers that are pertinent to the teams performance and can't be found in other, more traditional media outlets.

In terms of coverage, many teams -- Spartan football being one of them -- receives minimal coverage from local and national media outlets. Its two nationally televised games are the only ones for the team that locals will see without being there in person. The universities exposure for its athletics outside of its own 34,000 students and alumni is relatively low. While a few nationally televised games should help the universities exposure,

As an author, blogging allows anyone to become their own beat writer. Sure, there's almost no money involved, but it puts event and subject coverage in the hands of people who feel passionately about it, rather than a dispassionate and overworked reporter for a metro daily. Blogging doesn't confine you to complete journalistic objectivity either, since I would argue that the job of a blogger is to take a stand or cheer for the home team as much as it is to report the facts about it.

You're obligated to get your facts right, but like a television analyst, you can have an opinion on the matters of the day.

Blogging also brings credibility to the authors, particularly as the world dives headlong into Web 2.0. More and more, people are turning to different Web 2.0 outlets, like Facebook, Twitter, and an assortment of blogs, for news and current events. Several bloggers, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos, becomes a source as well as a producer for a lot of content.