An insider's perspective: Blogging the USC football team

Graduate student Alexis Jones has taken upon herself a task many long-time journalists shrink away from: reporting on her friends. In Jones' case, her friends are on the USC football team.

Jones, 22, helped co-create Inside USC, a blog profiling the USC football team, in October after hearing a former Trojan team member comment on the romantic actions of USC quarterback Matt Leinart at a party.

"It really spurred me [to start the blog]," said Jones, who attends USC's Annenberg School for Communication. "Who’s to stop me from influencing people with the truth?" she continued, noting how fed up she was with gossip she was hearing about the team.

The idea of starting a blog had formulated in Jones’ mind before the former Trojan made his remarks about Leinart, though.

"[A professor] started talking about all this blogging. ... I had never done formal reporting, but why wait until I get an internship at Fox?" Jones said as she explained her long-time obsession with sports, especially football.

She combined her desire to be a journalist and future sports broadcaster with the technological desires of site editor Nathan Gotsch, graduate of the USC School of Cinema-Television and an "integral part of [the blog]."

"I would love for this to not just be an editorial site," Jones noted as she expressed her desire for the blog to become the "hub site" for all things related to Trojan football. The site now receives 200 or more hits a day and is steadily growing, according to Jones.

Jones views her relationship with the team members as a testament to her journalistic integrity and said she does not see it as a problem because "the guys support me as a reporter." She said she would never use her friendship to divulge a secret just for the opportunity to have a big story.

When interviewing the players, Jones mentioned how she transitions to reporter mode by saying, "OK, now I’m Alexis, the reporter." She said this way the players know they are on record.

"This is the beginnings of my career," she noted, re-iterating how the blog will establish how future audiences will think of her. "I don’t ever want ulterior motives. A person’s integrity always has to come before a story." She does not want her blog to be looked at as anything less than factual and of the highest standards.

"I want to be able to sleep at night," she added.

According to Jones, blogging "provides opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise exist" and "levels the playing field for the average person."

"People are too impatient to wait 24 hours for a newspaper ... or the 6 o’clock news. [Blogging] is a revolution of the media, and it is exciting to be a part of something that’s never been done before," Jones said. "All of a sudden everyday people have a voice."

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