Why Blog?
Today blogging can be considered as the ultimate realization of publishing democracy, or, a place for everyone to air their very own 'professional opinions'. Blogging is fast becoming an integral part of modern media and is bringing forth new ways of communicating news, opinions and events to the masses found on line all day, all night all year round. With this in mind it seems natural for an opinionated and soon to be educated young member of society such as myself to write a blog voicing my opinions on our wonderful world. And yet it is only now since I have been asked to do so for an assignment that I had thought to blog on anything other than my break up with my ex boyfriend , bitching about my heavy workload or the guy I met at Rocket Bar last weekend.
So now I have found myself searching the bubbling mass inside my skull for some worthy material, and yes, it is all around us. But before I delve too deeply into my lefty views on the media and the manipulation of the masses through our daily newspapers, news readers and newly, online news bulletins. I'd like to talk about who blogs and who we should take seriously.
Who Blogs?
Yes, believe it or not, the paranoid white guy is no longer the main demographic of the blogging world. In all seriousness though, it is important to think about whose blog you're reading.Credibility is something that should play a part in our consumption of news. When considering material to be credible we have to look at the two main components which define credibility; trustworthiness and expertise (Rubin, VL & Liddy, ED, n.d.).This is where blogging as a form of reporting comes under fire. As a lone blogger, you have no ties to any organisation or corporation; you are able to say whatever you like. There is no need for fact checking, unbiased reporting or even political correctness. As a blogger you are free to publish an account of news and current affairs with relatively no consequence. It is with this uncensored ability that blogs can both gain and lose credibility in the eyes of the reader. There are some blogs however, with which this doesn't matter. We have our News blogs or Special Interest blogs like blogs on gardening or cooking, which demand a certain level of credibility and accuracy form the writer, blogs like Holiday blogs and Dear Diary blogs are a recount of personal experience and therefore require little to no demand for research or credibility to be happily read by other bloggers.
Some Examples of Blogs
EMO LAMENT BLOG: This is much like a dear diary blog except there is much more eyeliner and complaining.
WIND SURFING BLOG: this is a blog by Lano which details his keen interest in and experience with wind surfing.
JOURNALIST BLOG: Mark Day is a senior journalist at The Australian this is his blog which features stories he’s written for The Australian and ones he’s written strictly for his blog. It also features reader comments and feedback and can sometimes get a bit catty... reow.
Who Blogs?
Yes, believe it or not, the paranoid white guy is no longer the main demographic of the blogging world. In all seriousness though, it is important to think about whose blog you're reading.Credibility is something that should play a part in our consumption of news. When considering material to be credible we have to look at the two main components which define credibility; trustworthiness and expertise (Rubin, VL & Liddy, ED, n.d.).This is where blogging as a form of reporting comes under fire. As a lone blogger, you have no ties to any organisation or corporation; you are able to say whatever you like. There is no need for fact checking, unbiased reporting or even political correctness. As a blogger you are free to publish an account of news and current affairs with relatively no consequence. It is with this uncensored ability that blogs can both gain and lose credibility in the eyes of the reader. There are some blogs however, with which this doesn't matter. We have our News blogs or Special Interest blogs like blogs on gardening or cooking, which demand a certain level of credibility and accuracy form the writer, blogs like Holiday blogs and Dear Diary blogs are a recount of personal experience and therefore require little to no demand for research or credibility to be happily read by other bloggers.Some Examples of Blogs
EMO LAMENT BLOG: This is much like a dear diary blog except there is much more eyeliner and complaining.
WIND SURFING BLOG: this is a blog by Lano which details his keen interest in and experience with wind surfing.
JOURNALIST BLOG: Mark Day is a senior journalist at The Australian this is his blog which features stories he’s written for The Australian and ones he’s written strictly for his blog. It also features reader comments and feedback and can sometimes get a bit catty... reow.
References
Rubin, VL & Liddy, ED (n.d.) ‘Assessing Credibility of Weblogs’ Syracuse University, accessed online www.aaai.org/Papers/Symposia/Spring/2006/SS-06-03/SS06-03-038.pdf
2 comments:
Hey Jess, How's the blogging going?
hey dave, its going ok.. i haven't finished any of my blogs yet lol i keep starting posting then just drafting them so hopefully by the end of this weekend i will have finished this post and have some more for you to check out :)
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