Blog Post Assignment for Sports Journalism

Former Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel is now number 2 on the all-time win list
at Missouri. Dan Devine is the winningest coach in Missouri history.

As part of your work for this class I want you to get involved in blogging and using social media to promote your online work. I want you to establish a blog with a unique name and sports angle that will attract readers. For the purposes of this class I would like you to use the website Blogger  or Wix to create your blog. Blogger is part of the Google universe. It is easy to set up and use. Wix is a little more complicated but it will create a nicer looking blog. Be sure and use one of the Blog templates if you choose Wix. If you already have a sports blog then you need to set up a new one.

So what are the guidelines for your blog entries? I am looking for engaging, interesting reporting and observations about sports. Writing for blogs is much more conversational in style and generally more subjective than other sports writing your might do. I expect each blog entry to be at least 300 words but they could be much longer if your feel so moved. Be careful about using copyrighted images in your blog. I know this is common practice on the internet but most sports teams and universities copyright their images and they can get litigation happy if they get angry. Photopin is a good resource for copyright free images from Flickr and other photo sharing sites. You can also go use the advanced search option in Google Images to narrow your search to non-copyrighted images.  Both of the Missouri Tigers images I have used on this site came from Photopin.
Once you have written your blog entry you need to promote it by posting links on the class Facebook page and on Twitter with the hashtab #srusj. If you do not have a Facebook or Twitter account then you need to start one. Sorry, that is the world we live in now.

Your blog needs to be up and running with links posted on Facebook and Twitter by 2 pm on Thursday, October 18th. Be prepared to discuss the name and angle of your blog. Your first entry on the blog will be due by 2 pm on Tuesday, October 23rd.