Q & A: My Final Post

Steve Cawthon said...
Heather,I must admit, I am not a big fan of blogs myself. In most cases, it seems they cast aside objectivity and become nothing more than a set of amateur editorials.However, with that said, the media has paid a great deal of attention to the "Blogosphere," as it has been colloquially referred to. What importance can you find for the dissemination of opinions in blogs vs. the media, and what blogs show the best examples of this?


Steve,
Wikipedia.org defines the Blogosphere as a universal term of all blogs together as a social network or as a community. The idea of a blogosphere is significant in understanding blogs. Without the blogosphere, blogs are nothing other than an author’s thoughts written down on the internet. The cultural network of the internet is influenced by the blogosphere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogosphere
There are many people who seem to have preferences of reading and writing blogs over traditional print. (See: http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/01/19/reading-blogs-versus-reading-traditional-print-media)


Jeffrey Steichen said...
Recently many famous people have begun to create blogs. Is there anyway to authenticate who is writing the blog or can anyone assume another identity with no penalty?


Jeffrey,
In the United States, the First Amendment Freedom of Speech allows us to speak anonymously, or to speak under a pseudonym. An author is, as a rule, allowed to decide whether or not to reveal his or her identity. “Accordingly, an author's decision to remain anonymous, like other decisions concerning omissions or additions to the content of a publication, is an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment."
Even though one may prefer to blog anonymously, there is always the fear of one’s blogging service provider being subpoenaed for one’s identity.
It is important to remember that the most common reason for being sued is defamation of character. Most things posted to a blog site are protected under the United States First Amendment, however, one must remember that a blog will be potentially viewed by the entire world and lies should not be posted.
http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-overview.php


Jessica Ellison said...
So, maybe blogs do have a purpose... maybe they are almost theraputic in a sense because people are using them as a "confessional"- a way of expressing themselves? Is there any research that suggests this?


Jessica,
There is a nursing student in England who writes a blog and she addressed the idea of using the blogosphere as a form of self-help therapy. She describes the fact that the term “blog-therapy” is used frequently on the blog sites even though it is not widely used in every-day life. She goes on to write about her ideas about how blogging online is therapeutic and how she finds it to be so on a personal level.
http://thinkingnurse.blogspot.com/2005/03/blog-therapy-evaluation-of-online-self.html


Zack Yaguda said...
You stated that many people use blogs as an online diary. People seem to post just about anything on their blogs and your right they can get very personal. while these blogs can be read by anyone, are there any cases where people have gotten in trouble for displaying thier thoughts on their blogs? Also, how do peoples comments effect the person who wrote such personal material?


Zack,
There was a case reported in the South Bend Tribune that stated that a teenager in middle school had been placed on probation for posting a rant to her MySpace page and committing harassment, identity theft and identity deception. The article goes on to state that the teenager was upset over a school policy regarding body piercings and wrote crude things about the school principal on her MySpace page.
The case was overturned by a panel of three judges and stated that the teenager had had her civil rights violated. They said that her posting was protected under the constitutional right of political speech. Many of the original charges were dropped but the obscene charge was instated and the teenager was placed on nine months of probation.
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=982

Conclusion

I have not been able to come to understand why blogs are so important to so many people. I have the information gathered from a few sources: Blogging is fun, therapeutic, easy to use and fun to read, etc. I have learned that blogs may be taking over an important part of the mass media that we are spoon-fed daily. Personally, it would be great if corporate news stations were put in their place. However, I do not want to rely on my idiotic neighbors or opinionated blogger to get my daily news. So many people say what they think is true but without any first-hand knowledge of the truth. I would never be able to read a blog for the sake of learning about current events or international news.
Blogging is in it's first stages of becoming a huge part of people's lives. It has made a large impact already, and it has a full life to live yet.

The Future of Blogging...Continued

On the C/Net News.com website, the article The Future of Blogging states that at the present time, blogs are important catalysts of news and information. The article asks the question, are blogs going to become a permanent form of mass media, or are they only glorified online diaries?
Dan Hunter, who is a professor for Wharton legal studies, likens blogging next to the printing press when discussing the importance of the new technology and ways to communicate. Hunter states that blogging is not a fad and that the explosion of amateur content online is steadily replacing professional and controlled information.
According to this article: "The growth rate of blogs is impressive. Technorati, a search engine that monitors blogs, tracked more than 8 million online diaries as of March 21, up from 100,000 just two years ago. A new blog is created every 7.4 seconds. That adds up to 12,000 new blogs a day, 275,000 posts a day and 10,800 updates an hour."

Knowledge at Wharton. The Future of Blogging. Special to CNet News.com. April 5, 2005.

http://news.com.com/The+future+of+blogging/2030-1069_3-5654288.html

Blogging's future

N. Macdonald published an article in the Register which attempts to imagine what the future of the bloggers will hold. He states that in the world of mass communication, journalism, and publishing, weblogging is a very real encouraging development. The significance of the Internet blog has yet to be discovered by most people. As it stands now, something special has happened with the popularity of the Internet blog, and milestones have been reached.
Macdonald explains that weblogging is a reaction to several modern occurrences. The first occurrence is the loss of community organizations and venues that allow public debate and community meetings. Another occurrence is the growing popularity of "the confessional culture, in which people increasingly make their lives public and share their experiences." Recurrent and trivial blog posts seem to be therapeutic for the blogger, and not so much meant to be enlightening for the reader of the blog. The fact that blogs are so easy to use and are accessible to many is another occurrence that lends acceleration to the popularity of blogging.

Macdonald, Nico. The Future of Weblogging. The Register. April 18, 2004.


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/18/blogging_future/

Who is blogging?

In the communication journal the Communication Review, C. Miller and D. Shepherd explain the nuances of the blog phenomenon. They report that the term weblog was first used by Jorn Barger in 1997. The article describes how the phenomenon of the weblog has brought up a number of issues pertaining to the juncture of private lives and the public sphere that is the World Wide Web. The fact that many bloggers seem to use the Internet as a diary or a place to confess their private lives leads to a problem of where does the line between the public arena and the private moments of a blogger end up? David Weinberger has stated that because bloggers are compelled to use the Internet as a confessional, blogs are highly personal and highly public, which are contradictory. Blogs are meant to be read by anyone, and are addressed to no one in particular.
The article goes on to say that although blogs serve no direct useful purpose, bloggers (writers and readers) are spending more time on the Internet. The technology used to blog is becoming easier to use and more accessible to people all the time.



Carolyn R. Miller and Dawn Shepherd, North Carolina State University. Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog.




http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.html

There are many people who ask the question: "why blog?" and "who blogs?" My next question will be: "Who reads blogs?" and "What does the blog mean to our present situation and to our future?"

Gumbrect, Michelle; Nardi, Bonnie A.; Schiano, Diane J.; Swartz, Luke. Why we blog. Communications of the ACM. V 47, (12) Dec. 2004. pp. 41-46.
Bloggers are driven to document their lives, provide commentary and opinions, express deeply felt emotions, articulate ideas through writing, and form and maintain community forums.

Catalano, Frank. Why blog. The Journal. Dec. 2005.
Will your Web log add to the world of knowledge? In 12 days of blogs, our expert demonstrates the myriad benefits this new form of communication holds for teachers, students, and parents alike.

Glenn, David. Scholars Who Blog. The Chronicle of Higher Education. June 6, 2003. Research & PublishingVolume 49, Issue 39, Page A14

References:

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1035134.1035163

http://thejournal.com/articles/17616

http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i39/39a01401.htm

Wikipedia

According to Wikipedia.com, a blog is a user-generated website. Entries to the blog are made in journal fashion and are displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs provide personal interpretation or news on a particular subject. Blogs can also be fashioned as a type of online diary. Most blogs contain photographic images, text, and links to other sites that are important to the content of the blog. Many blogs allow viewers to add their own comments to the blog. The blog search engine technorati was tracking more than 57 million blogs in November 2006. Before blogs, the popular way to communicate online was to use a site that catered to digital communities, such as Usenet, bulletin board systems, email lists, etc.
As users of the digital age, we have been creative in finding new ways to communicate with each other. Blogging is a popular way to get yourself "out there" and to "be heard"...even if no one is paying attention.