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For Josh Claybourn, blogging is more than a recreational pastime, it is a means to bring about positive change in his community By Lisa Davies J201 Reporter In the middle of the living room wall of Josh Claybourn's apartment is a framed drawing of the original layout of Evansville, Ind. He calls this city the land of milk and honey.
His bookshelf houses, among other works, A Year With C.S. Lewis and Constitutional Law . Both his faith and politics are important parts of his life.
His backpack and his laptop are waiting by the door, symbols of his battle to get through his second year of law school in Indianapolis.
Not only has Josh Claybourn surrounded himself with his passions, he has found the perfect way to express them. While weblogs are just beginning to take off, Claybourn has contributed to group blogs for three years. Unlike the popular personal journal, which simply relays mundane daily events for friends and family, Claybourn tackles important current events in an attempt to impact his local community.
“It's not about me,” Claybourn says. “It's about the issues I'm trying to advance. There is satisfaction in making a difference.” A History While Claybourn has no formal journalism background, he has always been interested in debating and working out ideas and issues through writing. When he was an undergraduate student at Indiana University, a desire for more editorial freedom than the Indiana Daily Student provided motivated him to revive the website, Hoosier Review. This had been a prominent conservative alternative to campus news, but was inactive at the time.
Claybourn was involved in Indiana University Student Association (IUSA) politics at the time with fellow student Paul Musgrave. When their ticket lost, the two decided to focus the website on a blog. They maintained this website for about a year, until they graduated. While this was on a small scale, Claybourn, who served as editor-in-chief, says the writings of Hoosier Review constantly influenced the student government. While rooming together in Indianapolis, Claybourn and Musgrave decided they wanted to do more. The two founded In The Agora, a collaborative weblog to discuss current events, faith, and science among other things. It's appropriately named; in ancient Greece, the agora was the center of the city, where people gathered to discuss ideas. Claybourn praises the idea of a group blog, because he can focus on one topic, knowing that one of the other five writers will cover other issues. This increases his ability to influence his readers, whom he describes as engaged and intelligent twenty-somethings.
“I want to influence people in Evansville and all over Indiana,” Claybourn says. “It's my community. It's where I live. I want to make a difference.”
While Claybourn knows that many people leave town, he personally feels indebted to Evansville. “It is a large part of where I come from, and I have a duty to give back.”
The city is looking out for him. The Evansville Courier & Press publishes some of his online posts as articles. In August of 2003, Roberta Heiman wrote an article on Evansville brain drain, centering on an email she received from Claybourn.
He desperately wants to improve his hometown. “My focus is on combating brain drain and making sure Evansville is able to capture and retain young and educated people,” he says. “That story is a good example of how I've worked to garner media attention towards it.”
Claybourn is influenced by libertarian views but describes himself as a true conservative who believes in limited government both socially and economically. Religiously, though, he strays from typical Republican thought. “The government should not be used to accomplish the ends of faith. It is the role of the church and society to change the hearts and minds of the people.”
Musgrave says Claybourn's sometimes controversial views are an important part of his influence. “This is what much of blogging is about: giving people an opportunity to challenge, debate, and respond. Josh does this very well.”
Investigation with IndyLaw Net Claybourn's blog is influencing the community, but it is also getting him places. Jeff Cooper, a law professor at IU Indy, encouraged Claybourn to come to Indianapolis after reading his blog. He hired Claybourn as a research assistant after his first year. “I almost certainly would not have done that if he had not written a blog.”
Claybourn was very interested in starting a law blog soon after he arrived in Indianapolis. Cooper let him borrow his blogroll, a list of academic sites he had linked, and it took off from there. IndyLaw Net focuses on impacting a very specific community.
Through independent investigations, Claybourn released information on this blog that wasn't being released to the public about a stop in plans to expand the law school. As a result of his work, the Bloomington Herald Times took notice, as did The Sagamore. “I now know how to make something that matters a story in the mainstream press,” Claybourn says.
Currently, he is creating discussion online and drawing media attention by covering the 2006 U.S. News and World Report law school rankings. The Indianapolis law school dropped 35 spots to number 95, and students aren't happy.
“I tried to be in the forefront of keeping the pressure on the administration and highlighting the issues as something important to the students.” So far, at least one student has emailed the interim dean about his concerns, referencing the blog.
For Claybourn, the hardest part of maintaining a blog is finding the time to respond to the comments from his readers. “You want to defend yourself, and it's really easy to get drawn in.” However, Claybourn's responses are primarily responsible for sparking interaction within the community.
“His voice tends to be heard in whatever debate he takes part in. He is organized, willing to compromise, enthusiastic, and able to repeat points until people have gotten them through their heads,” Musgrave says. Visit the websites in this story: For any questions, email Lisa Davies. Page designed and edited by: Kathleen Taylor Last Updated: May 2, 2005
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