I had a little trouble finding many legitimate blogs or at least blogs of journalists I actually know. But eventually I came across Lisa Ling, whom I recognized from the View on ABC. Lisa left the View a few years ago because she wanted to make an impact on the world; at least that’s the impression I got (it’s been a while since she left the show, so my memory isn’t so strong on remembering when that happened) and she’s been traveling around the world doing stories for National Geographic Magazine. I found her blog on:

http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/channel/blog/2005/03/explorer_maximum.html

Her work before this was quite different than what it is now. The View dealt with entertainment and things that weren’t necessarily world-changing. I think Lisa Ling’s transfer to National Geographic was quite a smart move. As much as I love watching the view, I don’t think it’s going to change my life in a major way. Lisa Ling’s work on television is different in the sense that it’s far more personal than on a blog, but nonetheless her writing leaves an impact and personable feel on her readers that makes it seem like television, or even more, that it’s reality and it’s in your home.

Ling’s writing style is very effectual in relaying her experience to her readers. She sees people, places and things in ways that are so realistic that they make you cringe and think, “I’m so glad I’m not going through that,” or “Wow, that’s an idea I never thought of before, or something that I didn’t know existed or was so interesting until after I read about it.”

For example in this article about prisons in the United States, Lisa Ling expresses a great interest/fascination with the prisons of our country. From this article I gathered she visited and took the time to find out about the people behind the prison walls and it was rather a brave act on her part to go and learn about this kind of thing. Not only does she do this sort of assignment for National Geographic, but she also goes all around the world to investigate various new discoveries, the miscellaneous cultures on the planet and her intense interest in Earth, its peoples, animals, societies and cultures is what makes her so unique as a journalist.

Usually what I read about in newspapers is not relative to a lot of things that I’m interested in, or at least not to an extent that I feel it’s important/affecting the world and its communities. In this case, in reading Lisa Ling’s blog, I felt what Lisa Ling had to say was important and reflecting something that matters to the world’s communities as a whole. I felt as if she was trying to make a difference by participating in the kind of journalism she does. It’s not the same as just getting on the news every night and looking beautiful. Perhaps there is a certain beauty aspect in Lisa Ling’s career as a journalist. (I mean she was on the View first; as much as I enjoy the show, a lot of the popularity of it revolves around the attractive image of the hostesses. Their personal charisma is part of the show’s success as well as the fact that they are intelligent women. But without their looks, as sad as this is, television would mostly likely not accept them. Not that easily that is. The reason for this is just another sad truth of American television and society. We are too obsessed with the “beautiful” image.)

Aside from the slight digression from the subject of journalists’ blogs, I do think it’s extremely important to continue the trend of blogging, in addition to completing their regular tasks because this is a way to get the public interested in the news and world events. Those who have the ability to change the world with their public influence really should take the opportunity. If I was a famous journalist, and my views and explorations interested people and had the opportunity to make a difference through writing a blog, I’d write about these things and see how it played out.

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