I'd say it depends on the blog of course but more general issues do play a role. The idea of audience is something we liked to talk about in class. A bloggers audience is like no other audience. It is massive, worldwide, but very unfocused. I hate when I read blogs or watch video blogs with people I dont know speaking like they're my bestie. "Heeeeey people, I just stopped by to say...." I just dislike the sense of false familiarity and it makes a lot of blogging seem way too fake and superficial.
Beyond that I take issue because everyone and their mother has a blog. Whoever creates a blog must really think that people everywhere are dying to know just what they did, eat, made, said, during the day. Its all unsolicited advise.
With these complaints aired I must say I love blogs. I follow tons and tons of them and search for new ones often. Hopefully through out the week I will bring up my other opinions about blogs.
I think it says a lot when my friend was prompted to write one of his papers for his "intro to news writing and reporting" journalism class on information he found on blogs. I also think it means something that my other friend had to actually physically create a blog for her "information systems" class, which is required for all business students to take as a part of their curriculum. She had to include things like a list of her hobbies, academic interests, and career aspirations along with an RSS feed hooked up to either a twitter or facebook account. The professor said that even though it might seem trivial to create such a bog, students "ought to know how to grapple with social media" so they don't "fall behind."
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of falling behind, it's a wonder that our parents generation thinks that journalism is a dying industry, when all of the journalism students I know are excited because they feel as though they're right in the middle of the social media hype.
I think it's just a measure of keeping up with the times, per se. Except this time, we have the internet to deal with, which makes the ability to reveal one's self or one's ideas even easier and most definitely less controllable.
and yea, I'm not a fan of people who think that they actually know you either, but then again maybe they're just trying to be friendly and have their message heard.
Given unlimited time, we could talk about how blogging is a different form of writing than "traditional" academic writing (or publishing). We just don't have unlimited time. We do, however, have a blog. So I'd encourage you to write about that issue here!
ReplyDeleteAlison, I agree with a lot of the points your raised. There are a lot of virtues to blogs--many of which you and Merill pointed out. My biggest concern with blogs is the room in which they allow for erroneous--and at times, egregious--information and claims. Blogging is a great outlet for people to voice their views, connect with others, generate dialouge, spread news, etc. But,I do not think we should rely on blogs as our primary source of information and news. Yes, Merill, the news industry has its woes. It would be disastrous if blogs were to make traditional news obsolete though. Full disclousre: I love my NY Times!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which...this article in the Times outlines the changing media world we live and the desire for immediate news stories and the way in which those stories are disseminated:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/magazine/25allen-t.html?hp
I also think that the nature of blogs has consequences on quality and depth of writing. Because blogs generally are about constant, consistent, and to-the-point posts, the general jist of an idea, story, etc. are shared, but posts usually lack a large degree of substantial, nuanced information. There are some benefits to this, but also many drawbacks--namely that we are being given fewer information.
I must admit I am a follower of the Daily Politics blog about NY politics. It is a great source for the inside scoop and breaking news on everything-politics in NY. But, in remaining true to the points I raise earlier, the Daily Politics is NOT by primary source of news/info. Here's the link if you wish to check it out:
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/
Phillip, I do agree that a problem with blogs is the ability to allow for erroneous information and rumored claims and insights.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this is somewhat related, but maybe a bit random as well. It also might be the English Major Grammar Geek in me, but as I've been writing these posts, I've come to realize that there's no grammar check. there's spell check. but no tiny green etches or "auto-correct" for grammar that just pop up to ease your effort in capitalizing your "I"s or first word of every sentence in Word. I'm also more inclined to not punctuate or capitalize properly while writing on the blog, when normally I pay so much attention to it...I don't even try to go back to fix it! Maybe this will be the difference between blogging and traditional writing in 2050....