In Three Things, Hector, a blogger I once dragged over this blog more harshly than any other, heh, though fortunately we managed to stay friends, asks:
But I have one question for Dan, maybe I missed it in reading his blog, why the major interest? I don't get why you've decided to devote your blog to thing and what the hell are you going to do when this story inevitably comes to a close?
I didn't decide. The first one or two stories were news stories for BNN, a little like any others. But along with the emotion evoked by one so young and promising gone missing, I grew concerned that, as I saw things, there were forces at work - another land, a tourist economy, a class system that could provide a scapegoat - that at least had the potential to keep whatever the truth is from coming out.
Having been blogging for almost a year, I realized I didn't have to just read the paper, or the websites. I could pick up a telephone. I could develop sources. I could, in a small way, be a part of a search for truth and not just wait to see what was fed to my by whatever the circumstances and large media presented to me.
I also came to realize that I could tell my own little discovered truths along the way, with all their shades of gray and uncertainty, in a manner a larger more established media simply cannot do; nor should it try.
And I didn't go searching for readers, somehow they found me. If I'm not mistaken, that's what the larger more established blogs that have all but ignored this story always told me blogging was - at it's best. And also how you would know that you're succeeding, such as it is.
This wasn't a decision for me. It just happened ... the way so may things happen. A young woman goes on vacation and winds up missing, possibly dead. A young man goes out for the night for some fun and, who knows, forfeits his own life and future in the process? Things happen all the time. This blog deal isn't even an especially remarkable "happening" in the grand scheme of things.
And as for what will happen next ... I can't say, really. Whatever "happens," I suppose. Check back, if it's half-way interesting, I may just let you know. ; )