Dialogue: The Making or Breaking of A Blog

I believe Rettberg is correct when he mentions the fact that blogs have an element of dissemination to them. Blogs do not discriminate who reads it; instead they are open to anyone who may stumble upon them. Furthermore, blogs integrate a form of dialogue in which the writer will frequently respond to his or her audience, which challenges Plato’s idea that writing “preserve(s) a solemn silence”. What seems to be the most interesting element about blogs, pointed out by Rettberg, is that blogs interact with hundreds of people that do not know each other. In fact, it’s a giant social network of strangers who read the same post and have several different opinions on the subject and interact with the writer to give their own opinions. In this sense, a blog is most certainly a dialogue and it furthers the idea that blogs are a form of social networking or network literacy. In Copyblogger’s post, the 7 Secrets of Running a Wildly Popular Blog, the blogger Dean Rieck describes how having a conversation with your bloggers is one of the most important aspects to a blog’s success. Although Copyblogger is a blog dedicated to helping bloggers figure out how to accurately use content marketing to their advantage, this tip about having a conversation is imperative to a blog not only being successful, but readable. Technological determinism comes into play here as well. Technology determines social and cultural trends and patterns, and blogging is one of those trends. Interactions between bloggers and readers not only foster new ideas, but also continuously shape the future of the Internet.

Question: Are blogs important enough to stand the test of time or are they just a temporary trend?

An entirely different take on blogging still capitalizes on the use of dialogue, but for an entirely different reason. The chapter, Blogito Ergo Sum, emphasizes the use of dialogue but for blogs that are used for journalistic means. In fact, one important example was Joshua Marshall’s blog, The Talking Points Memo, which called out Senate majority leader, Trent Lott, on his racial comments in the past. This blog got so much steam that it actually led to the Lott’s resignation and public apology on the BET network. These vigilante blogs that are journalistic in nature use the dialogue with the public to uncover hidden facts in the government, erroneous statements made by the news and so on. The debate between whether someone is a true journalist or just a journalist-blogger takes form, however. A true journalist depends on hard facts and total transparency and puts their job on the line everyday to report the most accurate facts. A journalist-blogger on the other hand, can simply sign up for a free blog and start putting whatever facts they deem fit, however to be taken seriously they must decentralize knowledge, publish with speed and offer some semblance of transparency. Blogging is in a sense a postmodern way of publishing facts and ideas. They serve as the watchdog of the watchdogs, meaning they depend on the journalists for the facts and then dissect these facts to determine its validity (Blogito Ergo Sum). In ProBlogger’s post, 12 Ways to Make Your Blog Post More Credible, blogger Darren Rowse describes that it is important to include details, charts, photographs, testimonials, case studies and so on to make your blog more credible. For readers, it is hard to discern whether a blog post is truly credible and grounded in fact or if it simply the ramblings of an ignorant self-proclaimed vigilante. Clearly it is up for debate, but the fact remains that if a blogger can support his or her claims with links, testimonials, case studies, and so on he or she is much more likely to be taken seriously.

Question: How does one truly discern whether a blogger is telling fact or fiction?

Response to Electracy & Google Making Us Dumber Readings

Dr. Ulmer’s article presented an interesting point when dealing with the term electracy. He used charts to draw meaning to his idea and I found it to be thought provoking. When he compared electracy to both religion and science, the actual idea of the word began to take shape. Although the thoughts throughout the article were at times confusing, the overall idea that electracy and network literacy are interchangeable and are separate entities from actual literacy was interesting. Network literacy seems to be an entirely different beast from actual literacy because it requires in-depth knowledge of the Internet versus the sole ability to read. People these days seem to be more interested in reading the latest blogs on juice cleanses than picking up a novel by Charles Dickens. In fact, people frequently discuss their favorite blogs more so than their favorite novels.

Is electracy as important as literacy is (now that almost everyone has access to the Internet)?

On another note, Carr’s article concerning whether Google is making society stupid or not seems to be directly on point with increasing network literacy. However, his article seems to be more concerned with the matter of technology, specifically the Internet, making us humans dumber. I think he is correct in a sense. It’s much easier to Google a topic for a paper than it is to trek all the way to the library and look through multiple texts for the answer that is already waiting at the click of a button. People no longer want to search for answers; they want convenience and immediacy. When Carr discussed the dreams of the Google creators, it was almost frightening. They wanted the search engine to replace the human brain in a sense and be more intelligent than a human being. There have been multiple movies and books written about the outcome of this – tragic – and yet I still can’t imagine the world without Google, much less the Internet. I believe that Google is actually making us dumber. Instead of searching for answers and reaping the rewards, we spend our time quickly jumping from site to site until we find the answer we want and forgetting the useless information we found along the way. Another topic Carr touched on was the fact that people no longer immerse themselves in text, they skim it. I find myself doing the same, I can hardly concentrate on longer texts and instead will read for 30 minutes or so and move on to other things. This is sadly the nature of the Internet, skimming materials to be able to move on to the next thing.

Will there ever be a saturation point with technology?

Simplicity

I chose this platform because out of all templates I prefer simplicity. The only changes I made were to add a photo of tulips I took a few years back because I liked the color palette and I didn’t want to deal with any copyright issues if I took a random picture I liked from the internet.

Mission Statement: I want to use this class to learn all that I can so I can one day create my own personal blog full of ideas of my own. I am interested in pursuing a career in the fields of either Public Relations or Marketing. From this class, I hope to learn how to create my own blog that deals with issues and ideas in both of these areas. I currently work at a boutique downtown and I would like to explore the topic of imposing high fashion in a community as conservative as Greenville and how buyers overcome this feat. Upon graduation I see myself having had experienced a great deal through internships, classes, and immersing myself in society.