Tom Jackman, blogger at the Washington Post and professor of Media Coverage of Criminal Justice at George Mason University, visited my News Writing and Reporting class on Feb. 11th.

Jackman has been at the Washington post for 14 years and blogging for them for the past two. His blog, :”The State of NoVa”, started in 2011 with the idea of the editor. The idea behind the name of the blog is that Northern Virginia is essentially a state in itself because the community is so different than that of southern Virginia.

“There are 2.2 million people in NoVa, and 7 million in Virginia,” Jackman said.

I thought Jackman would be able to give insight into possible Hidden Fairfax ideas, but he was more able to give great insights into blogging and online journalism.

“I hate the term blogger,” Jackman said, who believes he’s not the typical blogger that writes in their pajamas and don’t go out to interview.

Jackman is highly involved in going out, meeting people and interviewing.

“I tweet like a crazy person,” Jackman said, which adds to the thought of the online journalism platform.

Jackman tries to stay away from politics and wants a “lively” blog with people to interact with. As far as the content he can write about, the articles are up to him. He gets his information from the public who have a relationship with him, reads for information and goes out and talks to people.

Jackman spoke a little on the difference between print and online. The difference between print and online deadlines is that online is open, while print normally has a 5 p.m, deadline. As far as editing goes, editors look at the articles once, and print gets at least three look overs.

Jackman’s knowledge of the online platform and blogging was beneficial. For our group, we can try to make our projects interactive–which is an awesome idea.

“We report, you decide,” was my favorite quote from Jackman.