Mark Leccese and Jerry Lanson The Elements of Blogging: Expanding the Conversation of Journalism. Burlington, MA: Focal Press, 2016. 269 pp.In the advent of social media, the profession of journalism has faced many challenges; at the same time, new and exciting opportunities have emerged. One of those opportunities lies in the possibility of closer interaction between the journalist and his or her audience.1 The question is how the journalist could sufficiently utilize the interactivity of social media while maintaining journalistic integrity. The book uncovers this question with a comprehensible set of guidelines coming from firsthand experience.One of the highlights of this book is the first chapter. Using an example blog post of their own, the authors effectively break down the anatomy of a blog post. (pp. 1-18) The example blog post is well-written, insightful, and most importantly, a nicely tailored post to illustrate each of the elements discussed in the chapter. Moreover, as the authors are prolific bloggers in their own right, the examples and guidelines are highly relevant and hold conventional wisdom.As such, the authors confidently present rules to abide by for blogging. Due to the growing uncertainty about how to deal with the rapidly changing animal that is social media, the book actually grounds itself as the go-to resource for budding bloggers.However, some of the strongly asserted prescriptions may be disagreeable, such as in their advocacy for long blockquotes. Blockquotes surely could be essential for providing evidence, but one must also think about the attention span of today's readers and how to find the right balance of length versus brevity in today's blogosphere.The book and its chapters are divided into four main parts. The first two chapters define blog as a concept. Chapters 3 to 8 are tips and guidelines for writing. Chapters 9 to 11 discuss different types of blogs and their characteristics. Then the final chapter brings in a topic that is becoming increasingly important in social media communication: branding. Generally speaking, chapters in each part are cohesive and complement others. Taken separately, each chapter reads well with a consistent format and structure for students to follow. However, it may be difficult to follow or utilize the book to its full potential due to the way some chapters are arranged. This should ring true especially for educators, as the book dives into tactics and action items before discussing the types of blogs. Considering that topics, objectives and target audiences2 should be valued even more in determining the content and strategies for new media, the book's current organization may best be explored by visiting Chapters 9, 10, and 11 before probing Chapters 3 through 8.That said, the book does an excellent job of defining the blog as a concept and providing useful tips throughout. Furthermore, an educator teaching in the field of digital communication and journalism will appreciate the following:* Interviews with successful bloggers: The book regularly features accomplished bloggers, providing each individual's testimony and takeaways from their blog experience. …