Thursday, May 1, 2008

To Blog or not to Blog

Today I read an interesting article in the latest copy of Frankie magazine regarding blogs. The article discusses the nature of blogs, their authors and their relevance in our growing technological age. I found the article to be significant to our current KCB201 assignment, and I started wondering where blogging fits into my online life and my scholarly pursuits. I wanted to raise the issue of not only relevance, but importance of blogs within our growing online society.

Coming into this subject with a fair knowledge of media studies, Internet usage and of Axel’s quirky assessment items, I wasn’t surprised or overwhelmed with the thought of continuous blogging as part of the assessment criteria. However, when we compare this to a traditional university assessment (essay format, word-processed, etc) we can see a shift in both technological advancement and communication methods. As Henry Jenkins (2008) points out in his own blog, media studies is a discipline that has been quick to embrace new media platforms that incorporate research and scholarly pursuits. He suggests in this particular article titled ‘Why Academics Should Blog’ that Blogs are an important medium in which expression and academic credibility combine with prompt availability and widely circulated content.

According to Cameron Marlow (2004, 1), blogging is a new form of social interaction on the web that allows users to connect over conversations of interest. In the beginning, only a handful of individuals adopted these blogs into their regular online social communication, however popularity grew and now the prevalence of blogs in the online sphere (112 million, as of December 2007 - according to Wikipedia) is phenomenal. Looking at this popularity, perhaps blogging is the way of the future for some university subjects. Is blogging the new online communication frontier?

Upon talking to a few people, it came to me that blogs can either go one of two ways. I know some people who consider blogs to be their source of entertainment and information, whether it be a gossip blog like Perez Hilton or a factual blog like Henry Jenkins. To these people, blogs are considered to be a valuable and useful tool for finding information. I also know the people who despise writing and reading blogs, who consider them to be a means for people with nothing significant to say, to publicly voice their opinion. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but as a society how important is a rambling article about the choice between vegemite and jam in the morning? The quality of blogs found on the Internet strongly varies between blog to blog and author to author.

The article that appeared in Frankie was very interesting about the importance of these blogs. Written by Justin Heazlewood (in case he comes across this in his morning self-google) it discusses the standard of blogs circulating on the Internet. He makes the point that punctuation and spelling has gone out the window, and the content also leaves much to be desired. He then raised a really interesting point about the ethics of writing about others in your blogs. Should we change names to hide identities? Or technically do we own our experiences and memories, and therefore have the right to blog about whatever we want? This is important point to keep in mind in our blogs, as we are being encouraged to interact and incorporate others’ opinions into our articles. Where do the ethics lie in relation to this? For my fellow KCB201ers and myself, this shouldn’t be too hard knowing what is appropriate and what isn’t. However, within an informal blogging sphere the question of appropriateness is not only highly relevant, but something that should be considered by all before hitting the ‘Post’ button.

I wonder what the general opinion is on blogs, and in particular their relevance to virtual cultures and media technologies. What rules govern the blogging realm? Do we take creative ownership over what we post, and therefore have the right to say what we feel? Or are there certain rules and ethics we should abide by to respect our fellow internet users?

References
Heazlewood, J. 2008. Dear Blog… Frankie. Page 88, issue May/June.

Marlow, Cameron. Audience, structure and authority in the weblog community. 1-9 http://web.media.mit.edu/~cameron/cv/pubs/04-01.pdf. (accessed 11th May 2008)

3 comments:

melindamarie said...

I definitely agree with your opinion that blogs are becoming a more prevalent and believe it’s important as a New Media student to analyse and evaluate these new forms of communication. The popularity of blogging and its possible affects on the media environment make it an important area of study. You also mention the lack of consistency of style within the genre, and the general disregard of spelling and “academic” ethics. These attributes make it difficult to define or engage in the blogging in a meaningful manner. The credibility of the genre from an academic perspective may also be affected by this lack of structure or academic coherence (i.e. spelling and referencing).

However the stylistic freedom of the blogging genre might also be what makes it compelling. Individuals can generate their own styles and are encouraged to be creative and innovative in style and presentation, not only content. Therefore the medium is constantly evolving and growing. This is re-enforced by the interacting of the community’s members. Comments such as these, when constructive, can build upon or strengthen an idea or argument. Interacting with other blogs and internet mediums can also inspire improvement an individuals own pages. In conclusion whilst blogging is not yet a “perfected” medium it is likely to develop and become more significant and reliable due to its evolving and collaborative nature.

- Melindamarie 201

Labryan said...

Blogs are the evolution of online communication, the ability for the user to articulate their views and opinions in a forum that is now widely regarded. Understanding this new form of communication is essential in evaluating the popularity of the new media environment. The relaxed nature of the blog however, does open up the question of authenticity and journalistic integrity, as material may not be original and therefore essentially an infringement of copyright.

Individuals are drawn to the blog due to the freedom of speech it offers users. It opens up consumers to a multitude of opinions and allows them to engage and reflect in their own way, building upon someone else's views and leading to collective intelligence.

I do agree with a number of the questions you ask in relation to the creative integrity of the blog. In my opinion, as this new media style continues to evolve, rules pertaining ownership will arise and users will have to adhere to a code of practice while engaging in this type of online forum. In my opinion, I think blogging is only appealing because people can say what they want without having to attribute it to the real source. When rules and regulations are put in place to essentially legitimise the information given by others, it is then society will see the emergence of a new media form.

Bianca said...

Just a quick note – the Frankie link doesn’t work!
It would have been interesting to read the article, since it’s been too long since I’ve bought a copy of the magazine (is it just me or do they distribute at weird intervals – every 2 months?).

I agree that it would be very hard for an ‘outsider’ of the Axel-Bruns-Experience to be able to tell the difference of right and wrong and appropriate and inappropriate. I wonder if it’s just like Myspace of Facebook – posting pictures someone doesn’t want posted, or certain information brought out too soon. I think bloggers should post with a moral stance, even if it is just for fun. This act alone could help weave out some of the lower quality blogs.