I am not the blogger in my family. My wife Patti is very good at the blogging thing. She writes relevant pieces that relate to everyday life. Things about family, relationships, love, fear, you get the picture. Here’s the LINK. She also has a website you can find HERE.
As for me, I’m the fiction guy. I create stories using movies, poems, photographs, novels and the like. Being a writer what I’m supposed to blog about is how to write or news about my current projects, you get the drill. But sometimes I have to comment on the state of things in America, society, the world. Usually I use made up people (characters for the initiated) to expound on my ideas. I don’t always agree with how my characters think or how they act but I try to keep my personal agenda out of it. I let them go knowing other characters in the story will counter their views or actions. When I think about it the way my wife approaches writing might be much easier. More direct anyway. What she’ll tell me is it takes both fiction and non-fiction writing to tell the stories about the human condition. Who am I to argue with an English major? I think what I’m feeling today requires the direct approach so, here’s a blog.
As many of you know I have a BFA and MA in broadcast and film communications. I’ve studies communications all my life. This includes the use of TV, film and print (and now digital devices) for telling stories and facts as well as the impact those different media have on the consumers themselves. Our brain reacts to different types media in specific ways. To me the most disturbing trend is the “News Feed.” Now if we can’t get the story in two hundred and fifty words or less we phase out and move on to the next story. Hell, we can’t even finish reading an entire blog post. Research indicates we read about two hundred words then move on to the next blog in our RSS reader. To give you perspective a typical typed page is about two hundred fifty words. And all a typical reader can get through is two hundred and fifty words! Give me a break. I checked my writing and found that I write a little over four hundred words per page. I double space and use a twelve point font just for reference. I consider getting 2500 words on paper a good days writing but that’s fiction. That’s a little over six pages.
My point, when it gets to news I think we are doing a very poor job as consumers. Me included. I want to plug a game I’ve mentioned before called The Propaganda Game. It comes from WFF’N PROOF – Game for Thinkers. They have lots of cool game especially designed for education. I know games are popular these days so for you folks who like to play get a copy. It’s only $30. You will learn a lot about how communications works and I know after playing for a while you and your friends will start to see the world in a clearer light. Give it a shot.
Visit my STORE and check out my new book.
You must be logged in to post a comment.