Your on-line class day consists of two parts, and you'll simply be commenting back to this post. As always, you responses should be grounded in what your read and connect back the dialogue of our blog. Part (1)--What is a blog?
Find a blog to quickly read through. After reading through and searching about one particular blog and several of its iterations, respond to the following questions--
*What blog did you look at and why did you choose that particular blog? What did you find out while reading through it? *How is blogging a different form of communication? *How has blogging changed the ways in which we now communicate--think in terms of this class as well as at large. *Define the genre of the blog. What are its conventions?
Part (2)--The life of a blog
You need to create a digital map of the life of a blog. What I am looking for is you to show me the life of a blog through the genre of a map. You can find a blog to use as your context or you can use the activity above as a starting point or you can just create a general map. Use whatever program you would like to create this but make sure that it is a map (which means it looks and feels like a map and uses the genre conventions of a map BUT you should know that there are many different "types" of maps from which you could model your after). Post the link into your comment.
Be creative--think openly---and show me the lifespan of a blog. ;-)
In my search for an interesting blog on which to do this post, I was most fortunate to have a friend recommend the combined web comic and blog Hyperbole and a Half. Known for it’s apparently poorly drawn illustrations that pass as extremely humorous depictions of the text, Hyperbole and a Half is a blog displays the exaggerated life experiences of Allie, the author of the blog. I jumped right into the blog posts because of the attention grabbing images and the hilarious stories that cover a wide array of subjects like life experiences or simple opinions on social interactions.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the images embedded within the blog are not at all distracting. Rather, they buttress the effect of the blog posts. The hyperbolic representations keep one’s attention for at least one entry, if not the entirety of all the blog posts. Also, the diction of the post is slightly more advanced, but the meaning is not lost and the arena of the audience is still wide.
From reading Fleckenstein’s piece on blogging, I believe that blogging is a remediated formal Internet communication. Emails, chat rooms, and instant messaging were generally private or only somewhat public, but blogs are extremely public and almost journals in nature. Some are informational, but are still expression of the author’s identity. Ideas can be shared freely, limits are usually only those concerning audience, and ideas and thoughts are what are posted on the blog.
The genre of the blog, according to Fleckenstein is brought together as a forum where “individuals who wanted a simple way to post content about things in which they had an interest” (11). Hyperbole and a Half’s conventions focus mainly on audience directed text, pictures, links, posts, comments, advertisements, and archives. Other blogs also use author information, categories, permalinks, blogroll, subscriber links, and widgets (Flekenstein, 22-24).
I find the blog to be an enjoyable medium because of its free conventions and immediacy and hypermediacy with things such as images, videos, and links all popping up in one or different windows. Hyperbole and a Half is a prime example of this. In my map linked below, I used a street map format and superimposed images from Hyperbole and a Half as locations on the map. Other conventions and facets of the blog are also mentioned without images, but as the blog was image heavy, I tied in the colorful illustrations.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l128/altreagle/blogmap.jpg
First, let me start by saying I love blogs. I love that they are interactive, that they link to one another, that they cover basically any topic under the sun and that, often, the author is a very “normal” and relatable person. The author of a blog could just as well be my neighbor than some famous and well-spoken literary scholar. I recently started a blog myself and there is something very refreshing about airing my thoughts out in a structured public forum, but at the same time expressing myself within a medium that is free of many the guidelines and boundaries that other genres have. According to Fleckenstein’s definition, a blog is a journal online. A blog, or web log, has the very personal feel of reading someone’s journal, but it is placed in a public forum where people can respond to these very personal and unique postings. As DJ said, you can “jump into” a blog… you can submerse yourself in the very life of the author of the posts!
ReplyDeleteThe blog I chose to read is by Lesley Ludy and it is called “Marriage and Mamahood” (http://www.setapartgirl.com/blog/blog.html). Lesley Ludy is one of my favorite Christian authors and I chose to read through her blog because I enjoy learning about the personal lives of people that I respect and admire, and like I said before with a blog it is very much like I got to read Ludy’s journal… Her blog posts are often about her children and just everyday happenings in her life, but what I really enjoyed about it was that Ludy almost always relates these day-to-day happenings to truths God is teaching her and discoveries she has found in his Word. There is definitely a lot of personality in this blog, just like Fleckenstein says a blog should have. The genre of a blog is unique in that a person’s personality is stamped all over the website, from the layout to the links to the posts themselves. As Fleckenstein says, “Blog reflect the knowledge, experience and makeup of the author.” I liked that I felt like I was sitting in a coffee shop across from Lesly Ludy as I moused through her page.
Blogs have changed the way we communicate with one another in that people today don’t have to wait to be published by a huge publishing company in order to be heard. On the internet, readers can choose directly what blogs they want to read and sometimes, like in the case of the “Julie and Julia” story mentioned in the reading, authors are even discovered this way! The essential conventions of a blog are posts (that should be updated on a regular basis), author information, pages, categories, links, comments, archives, and subscriber links (so that readers can “follow” a particular blog). There are other components of a blog mentioned in the reading but I feel that these are what truly reflect the genre.
My map: http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f309/Feliciani/?action=view¤t=Glogster-1.png&t=1287672153770
While I’m not a blogger, and don’t read blogs of any kind, I knew the perfect blog for this assignment: Perez Hilton. Perez’s blog is probably one of the most popular among our generation, and he focuses on what’s most important to people our age: pop culture and all the latest gossip on our fave celebs, duh! And with all that pink and sparkle, it’s sure to cause an epileptic seizure. I mean, “is that much pink even legal?”
ReplyDeletePerez uses pictures of his celebrity subjects and manipulates them with superimposed text or juxtaposes them with other pictures to get his point across. The images lend the touch of humor and, in some cases, that satirical critique reminiscent of political cartoons which add to the text as opposed to distracting the readers. The blog also contains ads for clothing sites, Facebook pages, and other pages of the blog.
While reading through the blog, I found out that Christina Aguilera was treated at an emergency room for a busted lip, Hugh Jackman is considering a Wolverine sequel, The CW Network is planning a Glee “rip-off” TV show, and a pile of other rather useless info.
I have to agree with DJ in his explanation of blogging as a new form of communication. As Fleckenstein points out, blogs have combined what we all love about e-mails, instant messaging, chat rooms, and information websites. The public nature of blogs gives us even more access to the people we wish we could know: businessmen, politicians, celebrities, and the list goes on.
Some are solely published by the author, like PerezHIlton.com, but others still depend on the audience’s participation, like the [pseudo-]blogs Fmylife.com, Mylifeisaverage.com, and Textsfromlastnight.com. These individual and collaborative forms of blogging open up a new field of communication. They allow bloggers and audiences to comment back and forth, discuss posts, share ideas through pictures, videos, text, a combination of the three. Sounds a bit like Facebook, now that I think of it.
This brings us to the genre of the blog, which (in my mind) is very similar to that of Facebook. Fleckenstein asserts that blogs allow people to post content about things in which they [have] an interest,” which DJ also points out (11). In this broad sense, the genre of blogging would include sites like Facebook, but because blogs use permalinks, subscriber links, author information, blogrolls, archives, and so on, they extend beyond the realm of Facebook and other social networking sites. In a way, blogs can be considered something like social propagandizing sites (Fleckenstein 22-24).
Below I have added the link to my blog life-map. The background is a map of the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, CA, and I have superimposed images which represent the different steps in making and retiring a blog post.
http://s763.photobucket.com/albums/xx271/mbd09d/?action=view¤t=ENC3416BloggingBlog.jpg
Blogs. You can talk about anything, to anyone so it is a great way for people to let loose and get away from things for a while. Blog posts are different for everyone, depending on how personal or vague you want to be. To find a blog that I wanted to write about I went on the website blogcatalog.com, however I enjoyed so many of them that I struggled to pick one. Eventually after reading almost everyone in all of the categories I chose one. “The day my hearts skips 16 beats. The author ChatterBox usually concentrates on writing fiction blogs, but decided to indulge in something that actually happened to her. She has a rare heart disease, Wolff-Parkinson- White, which meant that her heart has two electrical currents therefore her heart beat was around 235 beats per second when she was taken to hospital. The author survived and had heart surgery that enables her heart to beat normally now, however this blog really made me thing. It made me realize that we have to cherish every moment that we have. Nothing should be taken for granted as life does come to an end, sooner rather than later for others. I think this blog post really opens people’s eyes. The comments underneath the blog definitely make you realize that these are the stories that you hear about but never think it will happen to you, but you have to life everyday like it is your last. “What a terrible experience. Thanks goodness you are okay now. I have had medical emergency experiences too, including respiratory arrest and I was conscious when I heard them announcing I was flat lining. Those experiences made me value my life in a way I never did before. Life is a precious gift.” I think the last five words sum up the blog and what needs to be taken from it. Life is a precious gift but there are people out there who take it for granted and waste the opportunities that they are given. However everyone needs to realize that one small thing can go wrong and life can be lost forever or people can get hurt accidently and they were the ones who really cherished everything that happens in their life. I think that it is blogs like that that people should read and take notice off, as everything was almost gone for the author as quickly as she got everything, and that must have been an extremely scary situation to be in.
ReplyDeletehttp://char9136.glogster.com/edit/glog/?action=glogs_create
I looked at a blog called In Between Seams. The blog is written by a girl I know, and it centers mostly around fashion and style. I don’t follow this blog regularly, but I do look at it every once in a while. As I read through it today, I saw that one of the foundations of the blog is pictures. She uses photographs for almost every blog entry, whether it’s about clothes or accessories, her life or recent news. I chose this blog because I, like Sammi, like to learn about people that I think are cool and that I respect.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that I looked at the blog of someone that I know but am not really anything beyond hometown/Facebook friends with demonstrates how blogging is a different form of communication. Firstly, I’d define communication as something that is direct- a phone call, text message, email. Even flyers are direct because they deliver one specific message, not a system of thoughts and ideas. Blogging lets you get to know someone without having to know them at all. Fans of blogs can comment on their favorite pages and even create a relationship with the author.
Blogging offers people a new way to communicate: it can be as open or as limited as either party wants it to be. Like DJ said, blogs can be extremely public and revealing. You can tell someone as much or as little as you want, and people can comment back with a sentence, paragraph, or nothing at all. This can be seen when we have to include our classmates’ ideas in our own blog posts. Even though we’re writing our own ideas, we’re mentioning them and agreeing or disagreeing, going in to as much or as little detail as we please. Also, when we have to read each other’s blogs, we get to know each other differently than we do in class. Even though the blog is casual, I see my classmates on a different level than I do in class. When we’re in the classroom, we don’t talk about the readings or what we think about the issues we’re talking about, we mention our weekends and laugh about random things. The blogs are cool because you can still hear a person’s voice as they’re talking about something deeper.
I define the genre of a blog as an open system of communication made up of words, pictures, music, and really anything that a person feels like mentioning or including. The conventions include a strong voice, the exposing of issues, ideas, or anything that the author wants (but it’s obvious), and mostly, a purpose. Like the reading showed, people from politicians to cancer patients write blogs. While their goals are different, one thing is the same: they are all almost vulnerably obvious and bold about what they feel. As blogging is becoming more widespread and popular, I think the conventions are getting a little stricter- like so many people are getting into it that it’s common to see similar formats, topics, and even voices.
http://s1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff518/dxelagado/Map/?action=view¤t=blogmap.jpg
BBC Sport’s correspondent Dan Roan has been blogging on situations surrounding the football (soccer) world for years. He’s covered stories from Liverpool’s infamous takeover saga to the current Wayne Rooney outburst. I have always been a constant follower of Roan. His entries often regard things I find controversial throughout the Premier League, Champions League and World Cup. Roan has established himself a strong following, whether it be through his blog directly, or his Twitter account. Being familiar with his blogs, his opinion on the events surrounding the football community seem to be very concise and he tends to side with the fans and the passion that surrounds the sport, rather than the business and financial side of things.
ReplyDeleteRoan’s choice to express his opinion through blogging illustrates the ability a blog provides to reflect on news with an opinionated approach rather than a neutral stance that we often expect from the press. Whether this approach stirs more controversy or highlights the thoughts of the people and his followers is one reason so many find them interesting. Often he can draw into his blogs his own passion for the sport and reading his work is more like having a conversation with friends or pals where emotions rise and heated arguments start. Roan’s blog seems almost as though it’s written from the perspective of a fan, giving his readers a basis to relate to. Not only does Roan’s blog express his own opinion, but also it can exist regardless of how many readers he has and who is audience is. A blog could almost be said to choose it’s own audience because it is being written from the opinion of the writer, rather than with the public’s opinion in mind.
The blogging revolution has allowed people to voice their thought without fear of being torn apart in the media. Since its explosion onto the media front, we have seen how blogs have become a response to society’s demand for a new way of hearing breaking news. As readers we no longer want to hear the fancy words used to describe the fact that Rooney is upset over Manchester United’s current performances. We want to here it as it is. Something Roan’s blog accomplishes. Blogging has changed the publics interaction with the media almost by adding that form of intimacy I mentioned earlier, especially when it comes to something people are so passionate about like football. As we can see from bloggers like Roan, it is evident that a blog has become an informal, yet interactive way to communicate with society and particularly the blogs followers. It allows readers to respond and express their opinions at the same time as learning news of events and issues they hold so close to their heart.
http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx87/zackhadeed268/BlogMap.jpg
The blog I chose to look at was by a photographer I’ve watched for about 2 years on Flickr, “Photo_David”. He takes photographs of figurines and gives them storylines. He creates lives for them in his photos. While he posts them on Flickr, he elaborates in individual posts on his blog, so his followers can find out more about his characters. He also goes into a bit more detail in his photographic technique in the blog posts, which I always enjoy seeing. His work has managed to put a smile on my face every day and I love to see how he achieves his perspective. (This is his Flickr page to give you an idea of his humorous photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daviddelarosa/sets/72157622554674935/ )
ReplyDeleteI think the most important blogging convention is theme. Unless the blog is for friends, it’s important to have a theme to tie together all of the blog posts. Even though the blog is more casual in tone and language, there still needs to be a reason to read it. I know I don’t spend much time on a blog that’s too personal without anything beyond someone’s life to tie the posts together. It doesn’t mean as much to read the experiences unless I know the person. Blogs are like casual novels. And novels wouldn’t be read either unless there was a common thread. Blogs are ways to unite people of common interest. I like the way it can bring people together like message boards or forums can, but in a way that is centrally idea or hobby driven. Blogs are probably one of my favorite byproducts of the internet. If I’m ever stuck on a project or my computer did one of those things that make me go “Oh my god what do I do???” I can google up a blog by someone who knows what to do. Answers are at my fingertips. Not to mention, blogs have also spawned some good movies. (Julie and Julia anyone?)
The Life of the Blog map I drew up goes through the creation of the blog idea, the cultivation of the “meat” of the blog, the day to day entries, and the followers that come and go.
http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx79/kentx062/blogmap.jpg
I absolutely adore food. It’s actually kind of a curse. I love watching cooking shows, looking through cook books, looking at pictures of it—and of course eating it. Naturally, I chose to read a blog about food. Perhaps it’s kind of cheating, but it’s actually one of my best friend’s blogs. There are many reasons I enjoy reading her blog: she posts great recipes—which I usually try and copy—and most of the time when she’s cooking recipes that she posts, I am one of the guinea pigs who get to try the food. Her posts always include some kind of a background story about the recipe, which more often than not, is a pretty funny one.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I love to blog and why I love reading other peoples blogs is because they’re so real. When I read someone’s blog, it’s almost like I’m having a conversation with them. It’s almost like you can hear them telling you the story themselves—it’s easy to see their personality behind the post. For me it’s a much more natural way to communicate with someone and much more fun. In assignments and papers for school we have to write in a much more professional way and not necessarily in a way we would normally express a point. When we blog we don’t have to worry about rules and requirements, other than ones we have for ourselves.
That being said I think that blogging has changed how we communicate in both good and bad ways. For our class I really enjoy it because we’re able to just be ourselves and state our opinions in almost a non-formal discussion board type of way. It’s like just having a discussion like we would have in class, just online. It’s much more enjoyable being able to respond to our readings. At large, though, I think that with so many ways for people to communicate informally we are starting to see a problem when it comes time to write more scholarly papers. More and more people are starting to write papers for classes just like they would write a blog or how they would communicate on Facebook/some other form of social media.
As far as what the genre of a blog is, I don’t know if I’m answering this correctly, but I’d say if I was going to define it by book store genre standards it would be in the memoire and/or special interest section. Generally when someone starts a blog they’re talking about something that concerns them: whether the blog is strictly about their lives, about some kind of challenge they’re doing, or something that they are going through with people can relate to. I suppose that’s one of the conventions, in order for a blog to be considered a success, other people have to be interested in whatever the author is blogging about. Kind of like in our reading when people wrote about their financial debt and the one woman wrote about her life when she found out she had cancer.
http://alissamargaret.glogster.com/Blog-map/
Blogging. The remediation of Internet chatting and the diary all rolled into one.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I was going to use PerezHilton.com as I’m, I’ll admit, a follower of many a celebrity; however, seeing as my dear friend has already written on the celebrity-based blog I decided to shift to another past time of mine – stalking my best friend.
The blog I decided to look at is on wordpress and is entitled “The 52 week Challenge.” Since I am already familiar with this blog, I thought that writing about it in an academic sense would be interesting to say the least.
The 52 Week Challenge is a blog that follows one Miss Kelly Link’s ambition to conquer all the things she has always wanted to do but has never done before in one year. This includes cooking, painting, and learning about new concepts or ideas.
The blog is updated every week (or around that time frame) and is complete with pictures and witty banter. While there are not videos or link or any other spiffy products that tend to make a blog more interesting, the blog is still interesting and readable. Her blog reflects her personality as a writer, with a bubbly background and a picture of her to the side to accompany her writing. The option of commenting to her posts and interacting with her is also a fun way to feel like you are doing the challenges with her.
I’ll admit that most blogs tend to be more interactive, like PerezHilton where there are videos, pictures, links, comments galore, and all that jazz, but seeing a blog in its basic form (as a mode of communication) is essential to understanding what a blog is. Fleckenstein discusses how blogs can serve a multiple number of purposes and can be used for really any purpose at all, as it how now extended past “politics and journalism, and now factors into almost every aspect of our lives.”
Fleckenstein describes the blog as being composed of many different parts that make it easily accessible, with link to other associative sites (such as a link to food in a blog about cooking at home), and widgets that are useful products designed specifically for blogging. While Kelly’s blog does not contain all these functions yet, that is not to say that it won’t in the near future. In fact, I find that her blog is a prime example of the evolution of a blog (beginning now as a mere catalogue of events using text and pictures) and am looking forward to watching it evolve as she becomes more adapt to the features she is working with, such as videos and links.
Working on a blog for class has already begun to teach me different ways that I can change my text to make the blog more interactive as a whole. As a genre in and of itself, blogs are meant to be informative and as such they are also meant to be interactive.
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa364/EWM2010/BLOGGINGROADTRIP.jpg
A blog is a type of journal online. It’s where someone can post their ideas or experiences or any number of other things and have people read and comment on their posts. It’s an online form of discourse and it’s a way many people of my generation communicate today.
ReplyDeleteWell it took me a while of looking through blogs to find one I really liked. I ended up deciding on one called “My First Dictionary”. After reading some of the posts on there I couldn’t help but laugh at the humor the author presents in his posts to the audience. I was actually laughing so hard at one of his posts that my roommate gave me a funny look and started edging her chair away from me. He takes words and puts them into sentences and has the sentences correspond with pictures. For example, one of the newer posts has a the word hurrah! Along the top which means that that is the word this cartoon is defining, underneath is a girl opening up a box and the bottom of the box is the word in a sentence to define it. “Oh hurrah! Oh happy day! The new dress is even sluttier than Janet remembered.” There are other ones that are even funnier. While reading through it I found that a dictionary can be a lot funnier than I thought it could be.
Blogging is a different form of communication because it gives us an opportunity to have in-depth discussions with people without ever having to meet face to face. I mean people of all ages and all over the world have blogs, you could be getting an expert on the topic discussing it with you online.
Blogging has changed the way we communicate. I mean in the class setting it’s vastly different from anything I have done before. It’s like a great big discussion that feels more like it’s happening in real time than posts on the discussion board because we can see the responses of those before and after us on one subject without having to open another file. Outside the classroom though it’s not as fluid as aim or other things like that but it has made us able to communicate over great distances with many different people. We can get different peoples opinions on a variety of subjects and any person can sign on and give their opinions.
The genre of a blog I think depends upon what the author posts. I mean it could be a type of political commentary(non-fiction), a type of journal(autobiography), a story(fiction), or the person could be displaying their artwork. It really just depends upon the subject of each. This particular blog is fiction because the author is creating mini stories to define each of his words.
No matter the genre of blog there are certain conventions that remain the same for all. Blogs need to be written in informal to semi-formal writing. They need to leave the option open for commentary from fans and they need to be is a updatable journal format. They need to be interactive and engaging, so pictures, videos and links should be included along with occasional funny stories.
This is my map of the life of a blog.
http://kitty161.glogster.com/Life of a blog/
Ok, I'm having a few issues with this blogging thing. I decided to look at Perez Hilton's blog. I love E! television, so I figured his blog would caer directly to my interests. I was right, I found more celebrity gossip and rumors on that site than i could ever hope for (and more). The biggest problem I'm having is this: I DO NOT THINK BLOGGING IS REAL JOURNALISM. the symbiotic relationship that bloggers have with the mainstream media makes it appear as though it's legitimate, but i think its crap. bloggers arent required to do any sort of research or fact checking. nobody is checking to make sure that what theyre printing is accurate or truthful. the mainstream media requires adamant fact checking and reliable sources. there is always an editor to be sure information is truthful. furthermore, the mainstream media is expected to maintain a certain level of professionalism. bloggers can write whatever they want, however they want. there are rarely any consequences, as i saw from looking over perez hilton. he says horrible, almost disgustingly untruthful things about people and recieves nothing more than a slap on the wrist. a real journalist would be fired.
ReplyDeleteoverall, i just dont see how people can consider blogging a form of journalism. they take information from other media sites (info that has already been verified, so they dont have to do any of that work), and present it in a way that the ignorant online media consumers can understand. it's true that the MSM can learn to loosen up a little, and perhaps see the value of multiple sources, but blogging is hardly at the same level as real journalism. my 14 year old sister can blog. it just seems like something that should be a hobby.. not a freaking career.
i'm not entirely sure how to "map out" the life of a blog. after looking at everyone else's work, it just looks like they took a google map and pasted a lot of pictures and unrelated captions on top of it. i dont understand how that explains the "life" of a blog. i'm just a little confused. I feel like explaining the life of something is more linear... so i guess i'm just going to outline it here.
the life of a blog:
- the blog is born. no followers yet!
- the blogger begins to write about things the public cares about, they start gaining followers.
-followers begin to comment on the blog.
- the comments spur the blogger to expand on certain subjects, or include or exclude others.
-comments may reveal information the blogger or public was not aware of, may lead the blogger to new sources.
-blogger is now connected to mainstream media sources, getting ideas from their stories as well as information.
-eventually, the mainstream media starts to recognize the popularity of the blog and its content. they may start taking the opinions of the blogger or followers into consideration...
im sorry, i know this isnt as multi media as everyone else's, but i didnt understand what those "maps" were doing, or what they were supposed to mean.... i also didnt check my email in enough time to ask questions... (or know that class was canceled, which was awesome).
For this blog assignment, I chose to use my friend Megans blog as my focus for our class blog response. She began her blog, titled “Baby Nolens Journey” when she found out she was pregnant. She is very funny and witty so it is enjoyable to read, its not just another mom talking about her baby, it makes you laugh and smile. She would talk about her cravings and post pictures of her growing belly and of how baby Nolens room was coming together. Megan blogged during contractions, and all is still blogging after Nolans birth in February. It has changed from expecting a baby to what comes along after the baby is born.
ReplyDeleteThis form of communication is different because she can put it all out there for all of the people in her life to see. It is different from even sending mass e-mails because she will always have the correct timeline and history of what has happened since Nolen was conceived all in one window on her computer. People have read her blog and she has even made new friends through it.
Blogging has changed very much how we talk and share ideas. Facebook and e-mail are all about who we know, that is all we have access to. Blogging creates an interactional environment between people who have the same interests.
Blogging is a genre of its own. It is unlike the other ways we communicate. It is different than facebook, twitter, myspace, e-mail and instant messaging. I don’t think blogging would have caught on unless it was drastically different than the other now “conventional” ways of communication. Some of its conventions are that there is always the same author, they are very leisurely unlike being bombarded by an e-mail newsletter. They are all in the same format and all feature text, pictures and/or video. If I had to explain what a blog is to someone, I would tell them it is like an online newsletter that keeps growing. There is definitely an element of scrapbooking in blogging as well. Nothing on a blog is usually on a need to know basis. I would compare it to a newspaper and a TV. Things is a newspaper aren’t on a need to know basis, but if they are they would be on televison. Things on a blog aren’t need to know, but if something was need to know we would receive an e-mail about it.
Her blog has been through a lot since she started it, I will feature some of the highlights on my map. She began doing this as a fun little activity she could do when she got home from work. Then many people started following it. She would feature her favorite baby products on her blog and a couple of companies began asking her to feature their products so they could do free give aways to her followers. The blog next reached facebook. There is now a fanpage for Nolens journey on facebook.
http://kem07d.glogster.com/Glog/
Like Sammi I chose to use the blog of my favorite author, Laurell K. Hamilton. I follow her blog on a regular basis as well as her facebook page where she updates multiple times daily about life in general as well as her writing process. She has made herself extremely accessible to readers in this way. After reading about her relationship with her daughter, her struggles with the latest Anita Blake novel, and the fun of family vacations it is like we are personal friends as opposed to an author and fan who don’t know each other. However, I did meet her at DragonCon this year! It was amazing but odd because I felt like we were friends and the reality hit me that I might know her to some extent but she has no clue who I am. Needless to say I felt slightly stalkerish.
ReplyDeleteA blog is a new form of communication that the internet has made possible. Individuals are able to share their innermost thoughts, acquired knowledge, or random ramblings with anyone willing to read their blog. Fleckenstein’s analysis of the blog was accurate although the information seemed to be a little outdated. I wonder how many blogs exist today? The blog genre is so popular because it allows people to instantly share information with a large group of people, lots of times it is the perfect opportunity to vent. For readers it provides fun reading with videos, pictures, links, and essentially anything the web has to offer. Blogging has turned simple conversation into an art form.
I love that the blog has provided our class with a more creative outlet for sharing our ideas, as opposed to the stifling discussion board where academia reigns.
My Map:
http://forevrevanescnt.glogster.com/blog-map/
After reading “The Blogging Revolution” I really don’t feel that I learned much from it. Aside from what RSS stands for (Really Simple Syndication), I’d already known most of what Fleckenstein was talking about. This comes from years of growing into the digital generation. Without realizing it, I’ve been blogging since high school. My friends and I all had LiveJournals, which I’m sure none of us thought of as blogs but are nonetheless. Like Sammi, I love blogs. I reluctantly joined Tumblr earlier this year just to see what the hype was all about and actually ended up enjoying it. I have a couple of favorites that I follow, but one that sticks out to me is a blog called “loveyourchaos.” It’s a maintained by a 24-year-old woman who posts several times a day. Each of her posts are different but all follow the same motif, which is simply stated in her blog name, loving our chaos. She posts excerpts from writers and poets, images credited to their photographers, and underground artwork. There may not be any real intellectual “value” or lessons in the blog, except that it encourages others to embrace whatever chaos is in each of us. Her blog has been on Tumblr and accumulating tens of thousands of followers for over three years now, with most her posts getting hundreds of responses from followers around the world.
ReplyDeleteBlogging has changed the way we’re able to communicate with our distant neighbors. As mentioned in the article, you can find hundreds of thousands of blogs pertaining to an endless list of interests that people across the country and the globe share. This helps to feel connected with like-minded people and to share our ideas with each other. The internet has opened a mansion of proverbial doors for the world, not all of them good. Among the positive changes that have come about from this ready access are the tools like blogs. Aside from keeping us connected to our interests and others who share our interests, it keeps us in the know. We are never too far away from a wealth of insight and information when we’re next to a computer. Even in this class, more than half of our assignments are completed on this very blog where we’re not only encouraged, but required to engage our classmates. The genre of a blog is one all its own. It allows a form of global communication never seen before.
With an estimated 175,000 new blogs being created daily, its mass appeal is undeniable. (Fleckenstein, 11) Through RSS and instant interaction, blogs put an audience into anyone’s hands effortlessly. I agree with Autumn when she says that the genre is up to the author. No two blogs are exactly the same, as they’re content is dictated by the author, but they all share the same conventions. These include (but are not limited to: informal posting, commenting options, networking with other blogs, friends or followers, and some sort of purpose. Blogging in the new journal-ing. Except this journal has no intention of remaining private, rather engaging others in an ongoing exchange about ideas, issues, and information.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v715/animalpharm/?action=view¤t=IMG_0294.jpg
My blog was an obvious choice, I read a lot of Ms. Magazine online and it only makes sense that I choose Ms. Blog as my reference for this assignment. If you don’t already know, Ms. Magazine is an in-text and online forum for women’s issues. The blog is centered around these issues and a lot of the time it includes developing information about things that matter to contemporary feminists like myself. Sometimes it’s just about girl talk, but either way it’s a great public forum where women can communicate about anything from global events, political developments to simply sharing personal beliefs.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.msmagazine.com/blog/
This blog falls under ‘extensions of a website’ rather than ‘online diaries’ along the evolution of web-based social media, as Fleckenstein explains (12). I see that many students choose some version of the latter. In the reading it is explained that blogs can factor into almost every aspect of our lives whether to discuss market strategy, as with General Motors, or to discuss things like struggling with personal debt, as with the forum Blogging Away Debt.
Blogging can also be inspirational, as with Sammi and Charlotte’s examples which are especially important to people in difficult times. The conventions of blogging seem limitless and the possibilities of blogging for it’s creators and it’s readers are being discovered everyday. I couldn’t agree more with DJ that while the conventions of blogging are limitless, the thoughts and ideas that are shared are what determine the audience. One of the greatest things about blogs is that while we are drawn to many that are specific to our own interests, we can still choose to read from a different perspective. Even greater is that blogging can be used for sharing information effortlessly. Participation is not something that is required, it is a freedom decided by the reader to utilize, but even if the reader chooses not to give any feedback, they have taken something from the blog themselves, they are the recipients of that information.
Fleckenstein explains that there are many different constituents in blogs; author information, helpful pages, categories, permalinks, blogroll, reader comments, archives, subscriber links, widgets, and of course, advertisements (22). What determines what blogs do with these constituents depends on the genre and conventions. Ms. Blog’s conventions involve as I said before, women’s issues. The website organizes different categories; home, arts, global, health, justice, life, media, national, work and ms.cellany all in tabs on the main page. The blog also utilizes many permalinks as well as subscriber links and archives, and one of my favorite things about Ms. Blog, it’s advertisements consist of things that are only affiliated with the organization, no BS or ads with any kind of stigmatization.
For my map, I decided to go the route of a conventional road map. I used marker pens to sketch it out with all of the things that have to do with blog structure in the reading, each represents a particular ‘road’ in 'Blogsvile.'
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h471/jjr10c/sc01b4ad2f.jpg
I have to admit that prior to this class I thought of blogs as something that only certain types of people participated in - hipsters/adolescents/eccentrics etc. After joining and participating in the class blog I can see that there aren’t just blogs out there where people feel the need to share every detail of their lives. I’ve begun to explore the blogosphere through blogger and by Google searches and one that I found a few months ago is called The Sartorialist. It’s a street fashion blog mainly composed of photographs taken by the author of people that he considers fashionable and finds fashion inspiration in throughout NYC, Milan, Paris, London etc. I’m not a religious follower of the blog but I love looking at it sporadically to find new and interesting style ideas. Reading through it today has given me a lot more insight into the blogs purpose. Until today I never realized that the author worked for over 15 years in the fashion industry for high end designers and was involved in fashion merchandising, designing etc. and that the word “sartorial” means related to tailoring, clothes or style of dress (The Sartorialist - what a fitting title). I really liked Sammi’s point that “author of a blog could just as well be my neighbor than some famous and well-spoken literary scholar”. This is true for my view of The Sartorialist, I never looked to see who was actually creating the blog so I wrongly assumed that it might be a fashion forward female in her 20s who also liked photography.
ReplyDeleteA blog, according to Fleckenstein, is a “new type of web page that [is] essentially a journal online”. It gives access to a new form of communication to everyday people. We don’t need to be tech savvy to be able to participate in a blog (I am evidence of that) and you don’t even have to post comments to be a follower. These factors add to the casual nature of a blog, there isn’t as much of a structure as, say, emails and there is more creative potential in a blog than a social networking site. Another characteristic of blogs that Fleckenstein describes is the presence of links to other posts, blogs etc. The Sartorialist has links to archives going back to 2005 and the blog even has “ a monthly page in GQ, recurring guest blogs and videos for Style.com” (The Sartorialist). Alissa and Alex mention in their posts that we are able to see the author’s personality and hear their voice through their blog, and I agree. I think it is the nature of a blog that makes this possible. Blogs are both incredibly personal, because of the authors ability to post and design the blog to their liking, and incredibly public, because literally anyone can access your blog.
I wouldn’t say that blogging is different from communication, merely just a different form. Some of the previous posts have mentioned that blogging combines email, chats, instant messages, social networking etc. into a new form. I think that this is true. You have the asynchronous communication of an email correspondence and blogs can support a vast amount of traffic just like social networking sites like Facebook. To me blogging has made internet communication even more personal. Sure, we can all update our statuses at will on Facebook and Twitter but those sites seem to offer the public a more superficial view of our personalities. Blogs allow deeper elements of ourselves to be shown to the public because of an author’s ability to design almost any element that is seen on the page.
http://js2008.glogster.com/Glog-4537/
Blogs have change the way people communicate. You no longer have to be a reporter to share news with the world. Blogging has opened up the channels of communication and allows anyone to voice their opinions, share their thoughts and shape the discourse landscape. You don’t need to be approved by an editor or wait to be published. As Fleckenstein says “blogs reflect the knowledge, experience and makeup of the author.” I agree Fleckenstien’s assessment, blogs allow everyday people the opportunity to share their knowledge with the global community. The blog I read is a perfect example of this.
ReplyDeleteIt’s actually a bog my friend told me about yesterday called AK JIGGA (http://akjigga.com/). My friend went to high school with author Andrew Kenward. Now Kenward is a student at UF law school, and he’s so bored in Gainesville that he started blogging about his favorite thing – music. The blog is about the music he loves and new artists he thinks people might enjoy. The blog is very personal and you can tell he has a wealth of knowledge of music and experience going to shows. He encourages people to try new artists and to go see live shows. My favorite part of the blog is that he has integrated Yahoo! Media Player so you can actually listen to the music he’s referencing as you read his blog. Also he updates his blog daily so there’s always something new to check out.
In case you couldn’t tell I’m a big fan of blogging! I blog at work and I have a food blog or fun. I agree with Sammi blogs are great because they are so personal and accessible. The genera of blogging includes permalinks, RSS feeds, author biography information, archives, and much more. But to me the most important part of blogging is the inspiration, people blog because the care about a topic and want to share their perspective on it. As Fleckenstein observes "blogs allow people to post content about things in which they [have] an interest.”
http://meggnetic.glogster.com/Glog-2371/
The blog I decided to do is one I embarrassingly admit I happen to look at quite often. Its’ name is Style Me Pretty and is really quite popular. Basically it’s a blog based on bridal inspirations from dresses and color schemes, to cakes and locations. It almost always starts with a sneak peak description of the wedding and then goes on to give the complete details through photos. All the photos are usually accompanied by captions of where it was taken or what’s in it. Every blog post is set up slightly different but they all consist of photos of the bride and groom, the decorations with the color scheme, the setting of the wedding and reception, and even small details such as the invitation. Just like many girls (at least I hope) I always wonder what my wedding day will be like. I love making mental notes of each blog I see, maybe incorporating it into mine one day.
ReplyDeleteMore than anything I chose this blog because it is something I’m interested in and enjoy reading. As a photographer myself, it helps bring new ideas to my photographs, and as a woman one day to be married a WHILE from now it allows me to create ideas based off theirs. I find that the photos are what makes the blog most interesting and captures the attention of the readers. I feel that blogging can be many things, both a form of expression and opinion as well as informative. In the blog I chose case, it is both. No one is ever forced to read a blog, but mostly choose to do so for their pleasure or benefit. Blogging allows people all over the internet and all over the world view the bloggers opinion on that particular subject. People are free to share whatever it is they please to without any limitations or approval. It is more laid back and lies on a more personal level with the readers. It allows people who may not normally share the same interests communicate together through blogging. The beauty of blogging is that it can be open towards an array of audiences, since almost everyone uses the internet, as opposed to a teenager reading the newspaper for things other than a current event.
Fleckenstein describes the genre as “ a blog reflects the knowledge, experience and makeup of the author.” I find this so interesting, because this is what makes no two blogs alike. You are really able to view a blog throw the author’s eyes and capture what it is they are seeing. The author is free to give their blog personality and shape it in any way they choose to by using things such as videos, music, photos, text, etc. When I look at the blog Style Me Pretty I can clearly see what the author felt was most important when writing it. I felt as if I was there at the wedding enjoying the cocktails and laughing along with the wedding party. The author gives great tips that are actually helpful to the reader, which is key in order to keep her followers.
http://abk08.glogster.com/BLOG/
Like Sammi, I share a love of blogs, and so it was pretty hard for me to pick one blog to look at. I don’t have a set type of topic that I like to pick when I look for a blog to read, but I do enjoy seeing that the author has some sort of creativity to contribute, as opposed to writing about cupcakes, for example. The blog that I chose to do is John Mayer’s blog on Tumblr titled One Forty Plus. I chose this blog because I always read his blogs, not only because I like his music, but because surprisingly, he actually has some pretty interesting, thought provoking posts on there. He also intertwines written posts with pictures and video posts. Like I said, I found that the blog has a variety of different posts, from letters he will receive from fans, to just random thoughts, to video blogs or pictures he’ll encounter on his tours. As the Blogging Revolution reading stated, “blogs tend to have more of a personality than traditional websites” and I think that blogging is a different form of communication than other web sites or just regular articles because blogging allows for the writers opinion freely. They are supposed to flow and share a writer’s thoughts, and the communication aspects comes into play when the blogs allow others to comment on a post, or to link it back to another post. I think blogging has changed the way we communicate now because as the article mentioned, before blogging was for more technical savvy people, but now blogging is open for just about anyone. Not only this, but blogs are now open to just about any topic, making them very relatable to larger populations, allowing for more communications. In terms of this class, it has changed the way we communicate because we are able to comment back on posts with our opinions of what others think of a certain topic. We also get to show our personality through the way we compose, especially when we post our own blogs, because we get to change the font and colors and add pictures to represent our ideas better.
ReplyDeleteNot only do blogs have more “personality” than traditional web sites, but they also have more links. Like John Mayer’s blog, there can be links to other blogger’s posts, pictures, videos, etc. The article outlines a few components that make up the genre of a blog: posts, author information, pages, categories, permalinks, blogrolls, comments, and archives.
http://gmg09.glogster.com/map/
The blog I chose to read was about recipes for healthy living. The recipes were all healthy, organic, and foods I would be interested in. As I was reading through the blog, I learned things I hadn’t before, and what struck me the most about this blog was the fact that the images supported the text, and without them I think I would not have been as enticed as I was for that particular blog. Although I am into healthy lifestyles and eating right, I think the pictures really set it off for me. This is where I completely agree with what DJ said, that images contain the power to aid the blog rather than distract.
ReplyDeleteBlogging is a different form of communication in that it is a voice over the internet, where you get to speak your mind and say what you feel, typically to a community of users who share the same interest as you do. Not only are websites like Livejournal and Blogger blogs (as the one I looked at) but facebook, myspace, and all others should be considered blogs as well. Blogs have changed the way in which we communicate almost in the same respect that phones, texting, emails, and the internet have. They simplify communication, and they take away the stress of face-to-face connections.
The interesting thing about blogs, is that they are everywhere. In fact, just as I pulled up my Picassa program to edit the pictures for the map of blogging for this post, automatically a blog posting on the next version of picassa popped up through blogger. Not only was that a coincidence because of the topic of this post, but it serves to show that blogging is everywhere, and that it is one of the most trusted and noteworthy pieces of communication that bloggers everywhere feel comfortable using.
In terms of this class, I feel like a blog is entirely useful. For our class, I have read through most of the comments and blogs posted by classmates, and I do feel like I have gotten to know each individual better not only as a composer, but through personal examples as a person. This is where genre comes into play as well. The blog itself allows visitors and readers to experience the blogger as an individual. According to Fleckenstien, blogs are the way in which we make our individuality shown, and as Sammi said the layout, the images, the profile and all of the features along with the blog aid in the genre of blogs. The genre can be seen as the way we make our mark, and the way we can “post” how we feel. What is best about blogging, is that all of the walls are brought down, and bloggers can be how they really are. Often when you read a blog enough, you get the feel for how a person truly is, which is sad in some respect because of the factorized amount that individuals hide their true self. None the less, blogging is a tool that takes that away and allows communities to progress, and communicate with their similar interests and views.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad334/kimiholowiak/b179620519.jpg
I usually follow HouseOfAura.com this blog is music-based, and it focuses on informing its audience of leaked songs, the latest news on artists, music video releases, collaborations for new albums, etc. I like this blog aside from other ones because it focuses on the music that I particularly like, which is underground hip-hop, not mainstream. I usually find out a lot of information that I wouldn’t normally be able to find on my own, that’s why I love following blogs because they pretty much do all the dirty work for you. You can stay ahead of the game on information by simply clicking one button. I love to be the first to listen to exclusively released music so this blog really helps me to stay on top of everything.
ReplyDeleteBlogging is a different form of communication because it’s not as personal as having a Twitter or Facebook page. The information your relaying is targeted for a specific audience, so you’re reaching many people, and usually the main focus of a blog is something specific like music, fashion, or politics, it’s never really a combination. Combination blogs do exist of course but it narrows down the audience, therefore making it hard to reach the masses.
Blogging has changed the way we communicate exponentially over the recent years. I would’ve never imagined that classes would make their own blogs to do work and share information with each other. Now everything is internet-based and blogging is just that much easier. I have 2 classes in which I have an active blog for, and just last semester one of my best friends took an English class in which the main topic was Blogs. I must say that it has taken away from certain things though. For example, in past years before blogging was common, many people used to consult with magazines in order to keep up with everything including fashion, music, home-life, politics, etc. Now, since blogs are a lot more personal and of course FREE, many people have steered away from the paper magazines that are not only “out-dated”, but cost money to subscribe to.
I agree with Jocelyn when she says: “I couldn’t agree more with DJ that while the conventions of blogging are limitless, the thoughts and ideas that are shared are what determine the audience. One of the greatest things about blogs is that while we are drawn to many that are specific to our own interests, we can still choose to read from a different perspective.” All blogs are constructed of posts, author information, pages, categories, permalinks, comments, archives, subscriber links, and ads.
http://janobanano.glogster.com/Blogger Central/
Typically I don’t read blogs on a regular basis because I can never find the time to. However, when I do get a chance to read blogs its always about one of two topics (1) Celebrities and (2) Miami. In high school I would read Perez Hilton regularly. Every home period before classes would start I would sit on my laptop and read about all the latest celebrity gossip. If there ever was a rumor out about a celebrity I know I could read Perez and find out the scoop. However, since classmates already explored celebrity based blogs I decided for this assignment to go with blog about Miami. To many people Miami is what they see on television and read in magazines; to me Miami is home. I love reading articles, watching television shoes, or movies that have to deal with Miami or simply take place there. I get nostalgic when I see things of Miami and it makes me love my city even more. The blog that I choose to look over for this assignment is Riptide 2.0 on Miami New Times ( www.blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide ). The blog is updated daily with everything from news in the area to celebrity gossip related to the city. Basically anything and everything related to Miami.
ReplyDeleteRiptide does a great job of bringing the blog to every form of social network. On the top of each blog is a section I’d like to refer to as the “Social Bar”, at this bar you can find a link to share with your Facebook friends, like it on Facebook, retweet it to your Twitter followers, submit a post to StumbleUpon, and even Digg it. Every possible social network is tied into each blog post to allow you to share with mediums you interact with. The of course the right hand side of the page features a few advertisements that would appeal to readers and a section with other articles you might like. The blog is very interactive and could keep you busy (or help you procrastinate) for a few hours. I actually follow Miami New Times blog on Twitter, that way if I see any interesting tweets I can go on the website and check out the article myself. Blogging has changed the way of communication as a whole incredibly. One thing is for sure anyone can be “published” and once something is posted on the Internet it can never be taken back. So many different mediums are linked to blogs and allow one blog to have such an impact on its audiences. Blogs are great in the sense that you can blog whenever, if you have access to internet, not even a computer because most people have internet on their mobile devices now, you can blog about an event as it happening or just happened. Social networks such as Twitter serves as a blog for everyday individuals because Twitter allows you post your opinions, regardless of how trivial or large, to the website regardless of the time of day. Blogs effect how we communicate on so many levels; blogs are used now for more ways than they have before, for example in this class we use blogs to submit assignment and many of us have blogs to express our personal feels that we feel we may or not be able to talk to others about or even to log our experiences and travels and some to find out the latest trends. I think since blogs can vary so much defining set conventions is somewhat hard. The conventions that all blogs have are posts that allow you to comments and reply to, many have images and links that pertain to what they were talking about. Blogs as a whole are limitless, the world is yours for each post, you can write whatever you want when you want to, who you share it with us up to you, blogs are our generations form of expression and an immediate way of being published. Blogs have more personality and expression than typical websites and links and images and most times more advertisements.
http://bfly5.glogster.com/blogmap/