5 days of… nah. EnFri-roment… nope. The one where I do things on a Friday for five weeks… maybe.

At this stage of the Online Journalism module, about halfway through thus far, it’s easy to start feeling the excitement of writing about the environment every week waning, drifting away as you desperately claw towards your computer in the hope that – by some divine intervention – the journo-God of inspiration will slap the keyboard into your lazy little face until six paragraphs of enviro-excellence and a page full of Delicious links magically appear on the screen. It rarely happens that way, though; the higher being almost certainly ends up being your own two hands violently launching your head towards the keys but purposefully missing and smashing it into a solid brick wall. Still, as long as the story is written, the tweets are tweeted, and the Delicious links are as plentiful as they are tasty, that’s all that matters.

In actuality, though, it’s not that simple. As I wrote in a previous blog post, online journalism is no longer about just writing stories. There are so many more things to consider: Twitter searches, blog searches, comments, conversations, links, community building, etc and so forth. You may be able to blag your way around six lines of bulls**t for a newspaper article, but you’re wide open in the social media world for everyone to see. If you’re not up to scratch, people will leave you behind without a second thought.

With this in mind, I asked myself if I’m doing enough with social media to really make a difference. What separates me from everyone else on the Birmingham Recycled website, or any other website in the world? Well clearly, they are all working hard and forming stories that mean something to their audience. Some of them know what they’re talking about. A select few even practise what they write. I feel like I’m doing none of those. So why not do all three?

Thus, my idea…

One day each week, for five weeks, in which I, Mitchell A. Jones, dedicate my life to the environment. Each week will be dedicated to a different aspect of the environment, possibly all five categories listed on B’ham Recycled or potentially limited to just conservation (although the former would be more fun). For just one day, via the use of tweets, a live blog, photos, video, audio and an eventual full recap on the main website, I would chronicle my life as someone who clearly knows sweet FA about anything, blossoming throughout the day until the caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly at the end of the night.

And that’s the last time I will ever refer to myself as a butterfly.

There are lots of exciting possibilities for the challenge – one clear example being that the use of Twitter could allow me to interact with people who may wish to join me and do something similar, or maybe even suggest new ideas, or even lead me out into the wild to meet them in person so that we can share our experience together. This isn’t chasing a story; this is me creating a new story, and even being the story. And you would be the story too. There’s too much emphasis on looking around at blogs and RSS feeds to find news. In reality, we can all be the news if we use the tools at our disposal as a platform to join and create.

A couple of students had a great idea for something similar, in that they are creating their own news. Clearly, their idea is much better because it’s focused and organic, but that doesn’t mean that I should give up on my idea. On the contrary, I have given myself a week or two for fine-tuning and finding the USP to focus my efforts on. Once I know where I stand, I’ll begin to walk. Boy, aren’t I doing well with the metaphorical jargon tonight.

I do know one thing through this, though: I’m great at alliteration.

But also, I’m bored of rewriting stories like I’m a Daily Mail journalist salivating outside the BBC head office for the slightest hint of disarray. At this point, as we hit the 45 heading towards 90, the realisation of online journalism is hitting home. This isn’t what journalism is, and I’ve done a really poor job of being one. So I want to learn. I want to get better. Why shouldn’t I share that process with you? Maybe you’ll teach me something as well.

And that’s the secret to keeping online journalism fresh and relevant. That, and a social life. But hey – we can’t have everything.

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