Random Acts of Reality: Blog Review

photo taken from clipartof

It was the picture of the ambulance with the headline "Trying to kill as few people as possible" that kept me stay on the blog "Random Acts of Reality" a little bit longer in the first place.
This blog is not written by a professional journalist, but by a guy called Reynolds who works for the London Ambulance service.

The first post I was reading was about suicide. Now, that's interesting. Normally that is a topic that you would maybe not talk about that openly. The blogger talks about people who try to commit suicide but paradoxically call the ambulance the minute they swallow their pills.

I guess that is his way of coping with his job. He probably sees a lot of awful things and might not be able to rescue everyone. Or maybe he has to make the decision of who to rescue first, which immediately becomes a decision of who to let live and who to let die.

His blog, which he updates at least three times a week, seems to be well read. People leave many comments talking about their problems with health issues and it seems to me that this is even a small therapy for them as they can finally talk about it - anonymously and openly. And they are sure they will be understood.

Is this journalism, I wonder. In a way, it is not really. His blog is more a diary of his job. However, when you keep reading it, you start to build up a relationship to this guy and his posts enable you to get an inside-view of what it is like to work for the London Ambulance Service. In that way, it is journalism.