More than a Fad: In Response to Blog Communities by Media Hype
Web Blogging is a fad. Some would argue this is true or just speculate around the issue lending to educational jounrals or other studies. However, I personally believe that web blogs whether politcal in scope or not cannot be easily dismissed as a passing fad. One must look at the nature of the blog. In respect to journalists using a web blog as a means of reciveing feedback, being unbias, and providing a sense of liberated media to the viewer this is true. Yet the web blog is something more than simply that, it is a new means of expression. In conventional media such as the television and radio there is no means to interact with the sender. However, in terms of the internet which conveyed through web blogs it allows the user to express his/her thoughts/beliefs/ideas to the publisher. In this light the web blog empowers the user as he/she can easily be a publisher of their thoughts as the original publisher of the blog. This inherently ties in to the fact that we all believe that we have the right to freedom of speech. Therefore how can one simply see web blogging as a passing fad. It is in its form a way of personal expression. Any invidual with computer access as well as the interent can create their own personal blog filled with their opinions - completely unregulated. In a world where there are millions of people and where one's significance is so trivial when looking at the world, web blogs provide a sense of expression unseen before. The audience is potentially the world, your opinion as insignificant as it may seem is viewed by anyone, people of different cultures, religions, politcal perspective, and etc. Simply put the web blog is the 21st century new form of freedom of speech. Therefore, marking it as a passing fad is not just, who would in their right mind want to give up such a freedom?
posted by Brando at 12:40 PM
4 Comments:
Fad - Or New Media?
Even though blogging could be considered a fad - it just seems to be growing to be more popular over time. For example i'm sure a lot of us use Wikipedia for gaining information on various topics. It's just so easy to.
Although most, if not all, blogging sites are monitored, it is still hard to draw a line between what is true, subjective, false or objective.
People are opinionated and should be given an opportunity to express themselves. However, when blogging becomes a source of power and extreme 'accuracy'- we have a problem. Blogging is good to gain perspective on several issues by viewing, reading and understanding more than one point of view.
Blogging is now even part of forming an individuals personality and getting to know someone. Many websites like www.myspace.com are designed for individuals to make, meet or just interact with current friends. Part of their profile includes a blog page, which is in fact very popular and almost always used (even if it is not always that interesting). Sometimes, when trying to make new friends and viewing peoples profiles on myspace.com, one can even decide if they even want to associate with this person based on reading their blogs. I.e - are they just plain weird, do they have interesting opinions, are our viewpoints too different, etc.
Even though sometimes it can get very invasive and perhaps too private, it is another way to express what an individual is like and again, ofcourse, freedom of speech. With all the accomodation provided by popular websites such as these, its really hard to depict blogging as just a fad.
- Megha Sawhney
Many people who have responded here touch on the distinction between corporate and personal opinions, private and public. Making the distiction between corporately monitored ideas and even e-mail is highlighted in these posts. The differnce is that a blog is said to be more subjective, however, as we examined in class, objectivity rarely exists. Even corporate thought is subjective and sometimes highly so because specific interests must be protected.
Fox for instance is an extremely biased television network and the corporate opinion is one which is enforced by individuals with personal biases. The network, nonetheless thrives.
This leads into the fact that I don't view blogging as a fad. Certain blogs are awful just like television channels, certain others are great and even create a great deal of buzz. Not everyone can use a television network to spread their views so I see blogging as a smaller-scale outlet that is here to stay.
It is not wrong to say that a blog in a sense is a digital diary. The contents of what you wish to blog about is entirely up the person publishing it. However a diary is something which is not necessarily meant to be read by others. Consider someone who does a keep a diary, the contents of it are personal and it would seem socially unacceptable to simply open and read. It is inherently understood that once you publish anything on youre blog there is the possibility that anyone can read it. It is due to this understanding that the blog is different from a diary. Blogging is a form of interaction that allows us to write our opinions, beliefs, and ideas while knowingly they are going to be read and more than likely responded to. The diary has no "sender reciever concept." It is simply meant for the personal viewing of the indivudal writing in it. This is what makes blogging so enlightening. It is arguably the first means to in fact post your own perspectives and have the world interact with them.
All other mediums such as magazines, newspapers, television, or radio allow us to express ourselves so freely. Of course one can write a letter to a magazine, newspaper, or call in to a radio station hoping you will get a chance to voice your opinions. However, these institutions are all governed by individuals keeping to a certain policy, one which could restrict your opinion and deny you your inherent right of freedom of expression. This raises the issue of not being able to express without regulation through any mass medium other than the internet. Of course you could reflect upon ther era of independent radio broadcasting, but after WII institutions were established to regulate it.
Therefore it should appear more relevant now that blogging is more than a fad. It is giving us the power to express whatever we want how we want without any limitations. Of course you can say I express myself all the time among my friends, family, co-workers, and etc. However, can you broadcast yourself so effectively on any mass medium other than the internet and via blogging? No you can't. At least not without being screened by some gate keeper and than somewhere along the lines having to sign a contract stating your opinion may be subject to alteration.
EMPOWER YOURSELF, PUBLISH A BLOG
I personally don't think that it will become the next blog. It lacks the inherent qualties of a blog. Firstly it doesn't allow the reciver to respond back to the sender. Secondly the structure of podcasting is simply a new means of broadcasting and is evident with this quotations, "It won't replace old-fashioned broadcasting, just as FM didn't replace AM, and TV didn't replace radio. And it's not narrowcasting, which is conceived as broadcasting for fewer people. It's podcasting." PODcasting will shift much of our time away from an old medium where we wait for what we might want to hear to a new medium where we choose what we want to hear, when we want to hear it, and how we want to give everybody else the option to listen to it as well.
Post a Comment
<< Home