The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
Volume VIII, Number 3, Winter 2002
Issue Topic: Public Communications Campaigns and Evaluation
Promising Practices
Blogging (BLOG’ing)
Julia Coffman of Harvard Family Research Project wants to save you from the embarrassment of making the same mistake she made.
Recently over lunch, a colleague asked, “So, how do you feel about blogging?”
“Well,” I responded, “I rather liked Riverdance. That Michael Flatley is one talented dancer.”
To which he responded while snickering, “No, not clogging … blogging!”
For those of you as clueless as I was about this term, let me explain. Blogging is short for Web logging. A weblog is an online journal or diary with short and frequent entries arranged in chronological order. Every day or week, for example, a weblog author (aka blogger) writes a new entry and posts it to his or her website. A weblog typically focuses on a single subject or theme, ranging from the personal to topic-specific or professional commentary. For example, weblogs exist on such subjects as health care, inequality, the media, social sciences, and, of course, politics.
Web logging is different from emails or websites that only offer lists of new resources or website links. A weblog might offer such links, but they are typically accompanied by the author’s commentary. You read the log aware of that, and based on how much you trust, respect, and tend to agree or disagree with the author, you make your own judgments about the already filtered content.
Like most technology, Web logging is susceptible to annoyances. (Consider one weblog I came across devoted to “smells that annoy me.”) But it is also a concept and technology with some potential merits. Let’s start with the obvious. If you are already an opinion leader in your field, or are striving to be one, it can be an efficient tool for getting your messages (and your name) out, providing you have the time to devote to it.
If you are an advocate or communicator, Web logging can be a way to take advantage of message framing and repetition. We know that how information is framed makes a big difference in how it is perceived. We also know that the more a message is repeated, the more likely it is to have an impact. Web logging allows you to do both—inexpensively.
If you are an evaluator, under the right circumstances and at an appropriate level of frequency, Web logging can be a way to provide continuous feedback on what you are finding, offered in digestible bites (potentially for different audiences) that will likely elicit more consideration and reflection than your 200-page final report. Plus, it forces you to frame and interpret data, something which most of our stakeholders hire and trust us to do, but many evaluators are reluctant to undertake.
As is the case with all technology, Web logging is not for everyone or for all circumstances. At the very best, it’s a tool that can make you more effective in your communications. At the very least, next time somebody asks you about blogging, Michael Flatley won’t be the first image that pops into your head.
Julia Coffman, Consultant, HFRP
A simple Web search for “blogging” will return many sites that offer information and/or tools to help you become a blogger. The author invites readers to email her links to quality weblogs on topics related to evaluation, children, or families.