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A Web log, or "blog" for short, is a Web site consisting of a series of postings on a particular subject, according to the community-edited Web encyclopedia Wikipedia. Blog formats can vary widely from an individual's diary to a list of hyperlinks to article summaries. Many blogs, including The Robinson Report, allow visitors to leave public comments.
The Robinson Report is accessible at www.thecatholicspirit.com/robinsonreport.
Robinson said he created the blog to be a "one-stop shop" for Catholic news. He gets his information by combing through dozens of Catholic newspapers, magazines, Web sites and other blogs, culling out what he finds especially newsworthy or interesting. If the articles are online, he creates a hyperlink.
"What I try to do with The Robinson Report every day is take a look at what's going on in the world as seen through the lens of the Catholic media," Robinson said. "There's so much out there that what I'm trying to use The Robinson Report for is a way to distill it down so people can get a piece of the whole every day."
Robinson, 30, said he hopes the blog will reach audiences beyond consumers of traditional media, especially tech-savvy young adults with busy lifestyles. His writing style is conversational, casual and often humorous -- he affectionately refers to Pope Benedict XVI as B16.
"I'm trying to make it conversational so people feel like they're talking with a friend who knows a lot about Catholic media," he said.
Catholic Spirit editor Joe Towalski said he sees great potential for the use of blogs in the Catholic media.
"Blogs seem to be a good way to have folks of all ages interact with The Catholic Spirit, sharing their thoughts and ideas about the paper and the Catholic community," Towalski said.
Blogs also provide for more timely news coverage, he added.
"We are going to try hard to initiate a blog to supplement our coverage of World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany. If that is successful, I'm sure we'll be looking into additional ways to use blogs as part of our mission to inform and inspire," Towalski said.
Robinson, a parishioner at St. Peter Claver in St. Paul, said he began exploring blogs as a tool for sharing the many Catholic resources he has access to in his work.
When Robinson began working at The Catholic Spirit a year and a half ago, he discovered a gold mine of Catholic newspapers and magazines to which his newspaper subscribes. Realizing few people have access to the volume of publications The Catholic Spirit receives or the time to read them thoroughly, Robinson found a way to distill the information using a free Web-based service called Blogger.
Every day, he spends anywhere from a half-hour to several hours researching for the blog, scanning everything from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Web site to The Catholic Messenger, newspaper of the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa.
"I want to get as many voices on there as possible," he said.
Robinson said he hopes visitors will revisit the blog daily to get timely Catholic news without investing a lot of valuable time and energy.
One advantage of the medium, he said, is that readers have more control over the information available to them and how in-depth they want to go on an issue.
"I hope people start with a story about something that's happening in a part of the world that they never knew about, or an issue that they never imagined, and that takes them to a little bit deeper reading of that idea," Robinson said.
The Catholic Spirit is believed to be only the second diocesan newspaper in the nation to develop a blog, Robinson said. Texas Catholic in Dallas also has a blog that allows visitors to comment on church issues.