My thanks to everyone who attended and to Gwyneth Doland and Kevin McDonald, KNME.

One of Gwyneth’s suggestions seemed particularly important: pick your subject, your interest, and stick with it. She spoke of the specific example of attending meetings, talking to participants, reading official documents. Important advice from the professional journalism perspective. (As devil’s advocate, I say write about what strikes you at the moment. You do not have to specialize to write. You especially do not need one single focus to get started.)

When Kevin McDonald mentioned PBS isn’t subject to ratings in quite the way commercial TV is, I thought most local TV stations don’t have vocal critics clamoring to shut them down completely. This relates to the woman who expressed her irritation at Gwyneth’s specific examples of media sources. We all have biases. Moreover, we all should cut each other some slack, especially when we give up a Saturday to come together.

I have mixed feelings about Kevin’s suggestion to associate with a larger entity. He says it lends some credibility to the blogger. Certainly, it increases the odds of one’s efforts being seen. It smacks a little of my cynical observation at the start that “citizen journalism” sounds like an excuse for firing the professionals. More importantly, I like my autonomy. Anyone is welcome to link to me, but I don’t want anyone’s masthead.

I have a recent example that turns the whole notion of citizen journalism (professionals versus amateurs) upside down, but I need to get my facts straight. Be so kind as to come back here on Tuesday. Thanks.