Week02

toc These notes were developed during class by class members working in small groups. Please feel free to add, augment, refine later on as well.



Some blogs we like
//Confessions of an Aca-Fan (Henry Jenkins)// - The Official Blog of Henry Jenkins, Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts at University of Southern California

[|VBS Blog] //(Multiple contributors)// - Content is hugely varied from science, current events, technology, film, and music, but each has a 'pop-culture' spin. Recent titles include "Hackers will bring Egypt back online", "Augment your own reality" and "The grossest thing you've ever seen". Most posts include an eye catching image or embedded video. Posts attract a number of casual "one-liner" comments.

[|Intellectual Property Watch] - This is a Political site, looking at social issues around new media. It is interesting as it offers updates on how government bodies are reacting to and using new media.

Media Decoder From the New York Times, gives updates from the media industry but its not just limited to, also provides news on culture, tailored to the "techno savvy" (or aspiring to be) followers.

[|Green Cine] This is a site that contains reviews for films from all around the world. Th reviews are written in an informal style, that contains a personal view of films. The blog is updated about every two days with new film reviews.

No Right Turn This is a clearly written left critique of the New Zealand government, NZ politics and global issues. Idiot/Savant has been blogging here since 2003 so there is a well archived back catalogue of previous blogs as well as an impressive array of relevant links.

A Dress A Day ...because we all need a bit of humour. My favourite thread on this blog is 'pattern stories' so this link goes straight there. The idea of 'A Dress A Day' is simple - to write a bit about a dress (nearly every) day - and offers a little light relief from the serious and critical blogs out there.

[|Dangerous Minds] According to the site, "Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange–new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture". It is US-based and definitely has a US focus (Wisconsin Labor Rallies are a recent post) but also seems to reach out globally for interesting stories (a recent post on Black Lantern Music, an Edinburgh based netlabel that deals in hip-hop, electronica, dubstep, breakbeat and jazz). I like the writing and the articles are often sort of brain-expanding for me.

Hyperbole and a Half A very //un//-academic blog...Hilarity is its main purpose, and reason why it's so enjoyable to read. Sarcasm is often difficult to portray in text, yet this blog manages to execute it well every time.

Steam Me Up, Kid Bit of a naughty blog, full of crude humour. Must admit I was hesitant to post it as part of a 'class project'. But I love how much //personality// radiates from this blogger's anecdotal posts, even when they're purely textual.

[|Tales form House of the Moon](Resmiranda) -From fanfiction site fanfiction. net, one of many stories published and critiqued through the use of comments and multiple editing about the anime/manga series //Inuyasha.//

//We All Want Someone To Shout For// Music Blog. Clean Straightforward layout, casual and cool style of review which shows his passion for music. His 'Introducing' posts allow new artists to emerge through the help of the blogosphere. MP3 links usually available. I've been introduced to a lot of great stuff through this blog.

**Blog Writing Skills**
//We didn't get round to debating these at any length. Consider this an open invite to add your thoughts as they occur to you in the process of crafting your own blogs this semester...//



**Working definition**
In terms of 'the blog' (noun): there is a sense of the 'personal' with opinion and ideas being singular. It is often associated with an idea or theme. Often but not always centered around critique/analysis. A blog is an interactive forum with the possibility of external links, comments and editing.

In thinking about 'blogging' (verb) the process is self-driven regardless of feedback (or lack of). While a blog invites a type of interactivity, this is not always the case. In other words, the way in which people use blogs is various (for example, some people respond and comment, while often people just read the information). Blogging offers a more 'active' type of reading whereby you follow links, scroll through pages and so forth (perhaps more physical?)

Publications are instant and on-going. They are easily accessible around the globe removing the physical constraints of geography. The digital sphere offers an easy form of archiving with blogs existing long after initial publication.



**History**
The exact birth date of the blog is obviously hard to pinpoint, but can be connected with the rise of the internet. Most sources say blogging initially took the form of online diaries. Justin Hall - a student at Swarthmore College - started an online diary about his own life in 1994. The word 'blog' itself was apparently coined by Peter Merholz in 1999 - a shortening of 'weblog'. Where as once the blog was about personal anecdotes, it has moved towards a form of professionalised 'citizens' journalism'. These days blogs are also used for commercial purposes. Blogs produced by marketing companies, for example, use key words to target niche markets. Microblogging does not seem to be replacing blogs as such, but rather serves as a channel for increasing blog exposure.



**Categories and genres**
Different blog categories include political, cultural, media, technology, personal and news. Within these categories, different writing styles help to define the blog's genre (for example, professional, personal, and amateur authors all use different writing styles). So within the category of 'political blogs', one can find satirical blogs, journalistic blogs, opinion-based blogs etc. The relationship between form and content helps to locate each blog in the blogosphere.

Blogging also varies between countries- USA has a hugely active blogging culture across a number of categories, while New Zealand's is less expansive (particularly amateur/ culture based blogs). New Zealand's blogosphere seems to mainly attract political discussion (e.g. Cactus Kate,Tumeke).

As one could say that the categories in terms of the blogging world could be the different types of topics that the bloggers are about in terms of content and the groups that they can be limped together in, yet in terms of the genres, one could term this the type of style that could fall into such as a personal journal or a journalist entry or a academic journal. Al these overlap and intertwine with one another thus, we cannot definitely say that there is a set definition for the categories and genres.



**Technorati**
Technorati is a search engine designed for blogs and other user generated content. It presents itself in a newspaper/magazine style format, with highlights for different topics presented as articles. As well as a search engine, Technorati also collects statistics on blogs, ranging from geographical origins (50% of blogs are created in the U.S) to page visits. This data is presented in a ranking form, with the intention of presenting high quality content for Technorati's users. One of the key aims of the service seems to be to turn blogging into a 'measurable' phenomenon that can therefore be easily accommodated into the spheres of commerce and marketing.



**Authorship / 'death of the author'**
Foucault argues in a post-modern society, there is no such thing as an 'original idea'.

The idea of a single author proposes several issues which seem to limit the text. For example, cinema narratives (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings) are individual, original stories. However, the narrative structure follows a cookie cutter construction as well as character archetypes (the wise man, the hero, the villain and so on). Authorship often functions as an 'illusion'. In terms of blogging, an author may deliver an idea he thinks is original, yet once published online, evidence of similar thoughts are delivered to the author through links, comments and other author's posts.

Blogs raise the question 'who is the author?' - is it the creator of the text itself or the reader who derives meaning from it? Much like the saying 'if a tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it, did it make a sound?' by the same token 'is a blog still a blog if no one has read it?'. This idea arises when considering authorship and the internet. The access to information has proliferated to the point where an idea is often only original until otherwise posted. In this way, the self-contained desire of the 'blogger' conflicts directly with the new interactive exchange of information.

Barthes and Foucault on authorship [|B n F]



**Identity**
Erving Goffman's theory focuses on the 'front stage' and 'back stage' components of identity. To Goffman, we are all actors, constantly in performance mode. He applies elements of stage drama (such as roles, scripts and delivery) to people's everyday interactions. This theory is quite a messy one when applied to online identity and blogging culture. It raises questions about the online/offline binary pair. Which is 'front stage' and which is 'back stage' is a good question to begin with, but, as we discovered during class in week 2, the answer to this varies from person to person.

Anthony Giddens

Judith Butler

//Group 2: what theories of identity are most pertinent to blogging, do you think? (Remember, this is just about getting some ideas down - you don't need to produce an essay here!) For example, Erving Goffman, Anthony Giddens and Judith Butler are all potential candidates for theorists whose ideas might shed light on blogging.//



**Banality**
The use of banality personally, I would say boils down to personal preference, as one person might find something interesting, another might find it very boring and banal.

Related to this topic is the human need for self actualisation form Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Its about the creation of an awareness of the notable achievements of an individual in their daily lives that the bloggers sphere allows. In tandem with this is the self-gratification that comes with ‘posting’ something online shifting it from the personal and private sphere to the public. Thus asking for in a subconscious or indirect way for the acknowledgement of peers or other individuals. This also allows for the identification and understanding from the outside perspective that allows for the feeling of ‘belonging’, that there is someone else out there that has gone through a similar or the same experience.



**Antagonism and conflict**
What contribution has the advent of blogging made to the public sphere, with regards to civility or has it at all? One discussion of this was centered around the concept of appropriate venues. Traditionally the sort of conversation one would have at the pub, in the locker room or amongst close friends and confidants would not have the same tone as discussion one would have in a public forum like a debate or an interview. Because the forums have not really been defined online, is it fair to say that "appropriateness" has not been defined? Another discussion centered around online identities (the internet trolls being the most popular) but how many other standard identities exist in the blogosphere? This leads to a discussion on anonymity, as it seems that these archetypal online identites are enabled through the allowed anonymity of the users real identity. Is it reasonable to remove anonymity on the web? What about political dissenters who rely on anonymity to keep them safe? Are they really anonymous anyway (IP trackers can find you behind the scenes)? Are different levels of anonymity appropriate for different online venues? Finally we discussed the spectrum of civil debate from civility to antagonism. We think that you can find all levels of debate on the web but antagonism seems to be relatively prevalent.

Unarmed but Still Dangerous - [|Dealing with Internet Trolls]

Which one (if any) are you? - [|Flame Warriors!]



**Video blogs / vlogs**
//For everyone: we need good examples but also some discussion about what the video format means for our understanding of blogging. We're looking more at video next week but, for now, let's consider the conventions and the merits/limitations of the 'vlog'.//

//[|The Young Turks]// Online news/ opinion show