Saturday, October 11, 2003
I never heard of blogs before this course either Angie. And do you know what? I don't really find reading them that interesting either (except for this one of course). It is really hard to find blogs that are really worth reading. That's why I didn't choose one to do my report on. There are only a few in thousands of blogs that have any sort of real merit. I fail to care about the trials and tribulations of twelve-year-old girls recorded on the internet for posterity.
I hope everyone has eaten a lot of turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie by now! I am so full.
I hope everyone has eaten a lot of turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie by now! I am so full.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
I'm going to have to change my blog for 'thin media.' I haven't been able to get ahold of the makers of blogads, so I'm changing mine to
www.mtgnews.com - a gaming site
Kyle
www.mtgnews.com - a gaming site
Kyle
Caroline, I don't think that most bloggers are male. Just from my anecdotal non-statistically significant blog reading that I've been doing for the last year and a half, I'd peg it at 60:40 female. Of course I don't use proper sampling techniques; I link through people to people to people, so feel free to ignore me.
Also, University of Waterloohas a bunch of students being paid to blog about school. They're using it as a promotional tool. It's kind of weird.
Also, University of Waterloohas a bunch of students being paid to blog about school. They're using it as a promotional tool. It's kind of weird.
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Up until this point I have kept my "cybermouth" shut but now I have a couple of things to say, so here it goes.
First of all I think that we are focusing way too much on blogs. Yes they are new and yes they are media but I don't think they epitomize the concept that this class is designed to deal with. I asked everyone I know (and yes some of them were older and maybe not as computer literate) and nobody blogged. Some people hadn't heard of it, some people knew what they were but didn't like them and one person went on one or two blog sites a week. I know that there are pockets of people who think that the blog is the next big thing but I am not one of them. Despite its increase in popularity, bloggers still represent an extremely small subset of the population. Young, white, mostly male and online. I don't think blogs are about to change the way we work anytime soon.
Secondly, I find it very interesting that blogs are basically how newspapers first started. The first newspapers consisted of a blank piece of paper being passed from person to person. Each person would write down what they saw that day or any news they might want to share and pass it along. The next person could then edit or add to the previous "report". The funny part is that we evolved from that format because it wasn't efficient and because it wasn't reliable. Journalism was founded as a reactionary profession to counteract the innacuracy of self-reporting. The irony that we seem to have come full circle and are now discussing what basically amounts to the virtual version of the old-style newspaper is almost too much to handle.
Ok I think I am done now.
First of all I think that we are focusing way too much on blogs. Yes they are new and yes they are media but I don't think they epitomize the concept that this class is designed to deal with. I asked everyone I know (and yes some of them were older and maybe not as computer literate) and nobody blogged. Some people hadn't heard of it, some people knew what they were but didn't like them and one person went on one or two blog sites a week. I know that there are pockets of people who think that the blog is the next big thing but I am not one of them. Despite its increase in popularity, bloggers still represent an extremely small subset of the population. Young, white, mostly male and online. I don't think blogs are about to change the way we work anytime soon.
Secondly, I find it very interesting that blogs are basically how newspapers first started. The first newspapers consisted of a blank piece of paper being passed from person to person. Each person would write down what they saw that day or any news they might want to share and pass it along. The next person could then edit or add to the previous "report". The funny part is that we evolved from that format because it wasn't efficient and because it wasn't reliable. Journalism was founded as a reactionary profession to counteract the innacuracy of self-reporting. The irony that we seem to have come full circle and are now discussing what basically amounts to the virtual version of the old-style newspaper is almost too much to handle.
Ok I think I am done now.
