I know I've gone through this whole charade before (and I totally did when thinking about my news show and before settling on identity capital), but I've figured out a niche for real this time. After thinking about my niche, I've come to a decision and I think it's a good one. I'm going to cover current affairs as a whole.
After thinking about that niche and outlining my ideas, I realized that they all fell under the category of current affairs. Even identity theft and credit reports are current affairs topics, since they keep coming up in the news and they are changing enough to merit constant attention.
Here's the Plan
My plan is to pull my blog post ideas from Extemp Central. They do a good job of posting questions every week, but I do notice the site lacks in original issue analysis (perhaps that's what the strategy briefs are about, but you have to pay for those. Not everyone wants to pay for those.) It also lacks answers to the questions it posts, although it does share and forward useful articles every week, sometimes those articles don't line up with any of the question it's posted. So, I plan to fill in what's missing by answering questions three to four times a week. It will take some time to do the necessary research, but I also do want to do personal, off-the-wall blog posts from time to time, so there's room for that as well.
Have I said all this before? I feel like I have since it all sounds so familiar in my head.
Blog Post Topic Examples Include:
- Should the U.S. cut off military aid to Egypt?
- Are Common Core standards bad for American education?
- Should Google Glass be banned from public places? (I've actually answered this question before on another blog, but nothing too extensive).
- Is Elizabeth Warren a potential Democratic presidential nominee in 2016?
- Should secular corporations be exempted from Obamacare’s contraception requirement on religious grounds?
- How should states deal with their looming pension crisis?
- Is it in Pakistan’s best interest to improve ties with Afghanistan?
- What steps does the Libyan government need to take to restore stability?
- Is al Qaeda making a comeback in Iraq?
- How should the international community police money-transfer agencies to insure that they are not funding terrorism?
- Would the construction of an inter-oceanic canal solve Nicaragua’s poverty problem?
Subtitle
I originally got into international extemporaneous speaking almost 10 years ago (it's been that long since sophomore year of high school! Whoa!) because I was learning so many things that I didn't even know were going on. On top of that, these were issues that weren't talked about on the news but were very important for people to know and understand. With what the American media covers and what the pundits talk about, this situation hasn't improved. If anything, it's gotten worse since the mainstream media is much more partisan than ever and it completely ignores foreign events unless it somehow relates to the United States (or when someone of royalty is born, as that's very important). It's tough to find world news on the mainstream channels and websites. You have to know where to look.
At the very least, I'm working to prevent what happens in this video from happening to other people. I mean, the family was so darn excited to play too. Apparently, they didn't have a clause that said, "Pass when we don't have any answers." The other family didn't have clause that said, "When I can't think of an answer, I should probably listen to the rest of my family."