Official blog of Clark's Blogging for Journalists class, Mass Communication department

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Speaker writing assignment

Covering Dr. Hochenauer:

Take notes on your computer of his comments.

Write  250 words on your blog about his advice on blogging:
1. Main points
2. Brief bio background of him
3. What you gained that can or might apply to your blog

4. Attach your raw notes, with your name, to the  comments on this blog below.

10 comments:

  1. Notes:
    -Started blogging in 2004 because he thought there was a deep need for liberal commentary in Oklahoma
    -He does not make money off of his blog
    -He has experience with politics and journalism for 30 years
    -His job was threatened; a lot of people were not happy with the content with the content of his blog
    -He has a readership outside of Oklahoma
    -Believes that social media is going to take over mainstream media at some point

    Jordan Harris

    ReplyDelete
  2. Notes:
    -very liberal blog
    -focuses on Oklahoma issues, not national
    -doesnt have political creditientials just a self taught writer
    -thinks it is important to be open to other ideas
    -readily reads conservative posts
    -he writes long well researched posts that probably narrows his audience but he likes having the content to back up his ideas

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dr. Kurt Hochenauer
    Author of the Politcal Blog Okie Funk
    English Professor at the University of Central Oklahoma
    Guest Speaker October 4, 2012

    • Started Okie Funk: Notes from the Outback in 2004
    o Came out of a deep need for liberal political
    commentary in Oklahoma
    o Started with an Open Source script, moved to Blogger,
    then to B2Revolution platform, and back to Blogger
    • After eight years of blogging, he still has platform issues
    o Okie Funk has had over one million hits and over 1000
    posts
    o Will not accept advertising of any kind
    • McCarval Report is a “rival” blog that does accept
    advertising
    • Hochenauer believes that there should be a separation
    between opinion and journalism
    o Readership:
    • Typical audience = Oklahomans, previous Oklahomans
    • Cross-posted at Salon.com from 2006 to 2008
    • Referred to in The New York Times
    • Held positions at:
    o Kansas City Star
    o The Oklahoman
    o Tulsa Tribute
    o UCO (21 years)
    o Has written over 500-800 op-ed articles
    • Also operates Blue Oklahoma blog
    o A community mirror blog that anyone can post to
    o Does create revenue
    • Political credentials:
    o EXPERIENCE as a journalist for 30+ years in the
    political spectrum of Oklahoma
    o Owned & operated two local newspapers
    • How do does he stay inspired?
    o It is difficult. How many times can you write about the
    same thing over and over? This is a problem in the blog
    world.
    o I feel like I am “blogging for history” in a small way
    to show what is happening in the political world as it
    is now for someone in the future to come back and learn
    about.
    • What keeps him going?
    o It is a habit. I don’t necessarily LOVE to write.
    Writing and speaking out gives a voice to others in the
    community.
    o There is not a lot of liberal blogging in the state.
    • Patrick Reilly, creator of The Lost Ogle, is a student of Hochenauer.
    o Reilly was inspired by Hochenauer’s gumption, something
    like “If he can get away with it, then so can I.”
    o TLO is a commercial blog that supplies Reilly with a
    full-time job
    • Has he had any repercussions from the blog?
    o Job was threatened
    o Anonymous threat letters
    o Rude, threatening phone calls from co-workers
    • How does he deal with things like that?
    o It’s to be expected when talking about a volatile
    subject
    o Tries to avoid talk about UCO and campus activities
    • What blogs does he follow?
    o The New York Times
    • Crudeman
    • D. Brooks
    o Glenn Greenwald
    • Originally at Salon.com, now at The Guardian
    o “I probably spend too much time on the internet.”
    o Paul Wesselhoff
    • Very conservative
    • Tries to maintain friendly relationships with “the
    other side”
    • What does he think of the Facebook v. the Blog world?
    o Facebook generates more hits than a blog
    • What is some advice he has for beginning bloggers?
    o Tough market
    o #1 = be a good writer! Practice your craft
    o Niche blogging = find your niche of in something people
    would be interested in (not necessarily personal
    journals)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Notes:
    1. Dr Kurt Kochenauer- blogger on Okie Funk
    2. Started blogging in 2004, over 1 million traffic, over 1000 posts.
    3. Blogs because he thought there's a need to be liberal
    4. He simply loves to write and sometimes can write up to 2000words per post.
    5. Doesn't allow advertisement banner on his blog so that he doesn't have to comply with advertisers.
    6. He feels discouraging when he saw only a couple of people read his blogpost, and have 30 likes and 40 comments on a 1 sentence status update on Facebook.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dr. Kurt Kochenauer started his blog called Okie Funk in 2004 and has been blogging ever since. He started at a time when there was only about 2.5 million blogs. Now the blogs have reached over 200 million. He posts on political issues mainly focused on Oklahoma. His blog has a liberal point of view, very uncommon in this state. He has had over 1000 posts and gained many thousands of hits. He does not allow advertisement in his blog because he wants to keep his content genuine. He teaches classes here at UCO and even another blogging class, which is the only other class besides this one. He has had some controversial run ins with a few politicians of Oklahoma as well as some trouble with the UCO administrators for posting certain content on his blog. He keeps his blog as real as possible, sometimes pushing the limits. He also wishes that his blog and all blogs in general could get more page views and attention. However, a Facebook post about your last nights' dinner could get more page views than a 2000 word post about problems in the government.

    I gained from his speaking that my blog takes a lot of research and dedication to posting. The more you search and learn about blogs, the better yours may become. Posting a few times a week will also generate more page views throughout blogs. Your blog page is very important because the average reader these days only has an attention span of about 15 seconds or less.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Found a need -- liberal commentary in OK
    Doesn't take advertisers for the reason of maintaining integrity of his blog
    Speaks out so others feel free to do the same
    Repercussions of blogging: job threatened, phone threats
    Reads the opposing views
    Keeps going to more or less inspire others
    *Market for sports in OK. to challenge authorities.

    ReplyDelete
  7. - Need for Liberal Commentary
    - 30 years of journalism experiences along with owning one newspaper and operating two others
    - Feels like he is writing for history and posterity's sake.
    - You may be threatened--- persevere.
    - Read contradictory opinion and keep an open mind.
    = Get your name out there, first and foremost, by being a god writer.

    ReplyDelete
  8. -Tries to keep a liberal progressive voice in a pre-dominantly conservative state
    -Says he's writing history. Saying people can look back and see what was going on.
    -What keeps him going 1. Need for liberal-oriented blogs in the state. 2. There is still interest in local, liberal political commentary 3. Helps serve the function of helping on a small level to make a progressive history of Oklahoma Politics
    - Doesn't make money off Okie Funk
    - Job was threatened. Letters, phone calls about his blog. Wrote a story about UCO
    - Wrote for the Oklahoman Gazette commentary.
    - Spends a lot of time reading other blogs. Favorite blogger is Glen Greenwald, who wrote for Salon.com and now The Guardian
    - Also reads conservative bloggers. Wants to keep good relationships with conservative bloggers, writers, politicians. Helps keep an open mind.
    - Was referred to in The New York Times and Salon.com
    -Likes writing for the less fortunate
    - Advice for our blog in the early stages: 1. Be a good writer, practice the craft of writing. 2. Find your niche blog. Spoke about the need for sports blogs in this state.
    -Teaches the beat movement online for UCO
    -Still thinks talented writing and reporting will have a place just on a different platform
    -Another piece of advice: If you know blogging platforms and blog design and social media you are ahead of the game.

    ReplyDelete
  9. -2004 started
    -Oklahoma journal
    -journalism background
    -worked at Tulsa tribune Kansas city star oklahoman
    -owned two papers at once
    -okie funk- from the rath of grapevine
    -blue Oklahoma blog
    -writing now for people to read later and make history
    -what keeps him going is he likes to write and it's just become a habit to write.. he is speaking out and being a leader so other local people can speak out.
    -at the beginning he got threats and he has been written letters telling how he would get fired but he just kept writing.
    -fav blog is glen greenwald
    -Charles republican blog
    -David brooks from the ny times
    -salon.com

    ReplyDelete
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