Meta Blog: I Took Some Time for a Love Blog

Hello readers

There is a little something I’ve been holding out on you. For the past two weeks I’ve had a little blog at Seed Magazine. It was a Love Blog and it was the closest thing I’ve done to undercover reporting (I did have one earlier brush covering the LaRuche presidential campaign, but that’s another post). My findings (found halfway down that link), were inconclusive.

For Valentines day I suggested that the Seed staff should do something on the science of love. Another staffer came across Chemistry.com, a dating website that uses science to match you up with your perfect partner. Being the only single male in the office I volunteered (was told) that I would sign up and try and score a date, fall in love, have babies, etc.

Rather than repost the entire blog (creating the title Meta Blog), I’ll just link back to my undercover Love Blog (it reads the best if you start from the beginning). The final post is here.

All fun aside, let’s talk about journalism now. This was a new experience and requires special thought.

My date was an unknowing participant in this endeavor. Is that fair?

I know these kinds of investigations are done all the time, and let’s be fair to me; it’s not like I was trying to get anybody fired or put anybody in danger with my investigation, but some might interpret as what I did to be “playing games” with the girl.

A fair point. My response.

I treated this in as nonobjective a manner as possible. Which meant that I truly was looking for a date. All names were changed, so no real harm was done. As far as “playing games,” I have to say that if things had gone differently, I would have been happy to see her again, tell her why I was on Chemistry.com and take things from there. While my motivation was to write the blog for Seed, my intent was to go on a real date, and I did, I went on a really awkward date.

Back to work. But, for a good discussion on Journalism and blogging, check out my writing links below and click on writersville: A post on the subject earlier today.