Many popular websites are infact blogs. Two of the most popular are Dlisted (dlisted.com) and Perez Hilton (perezhilton.com). These celebrity blogs are updated with tens of posts a day, and users are able to comment - sometimes in their hundreds. A conversation can be held through blog comments, however a blog can best be seen as a soapbox where the author can get views off his/her chest - while still inviting people to comment on it.
A blog works in the same way as a seminar, where people can say what they want, when they want - though the this unit extends the timescale to a week rather than an hour enabling the author to write whenever he/she feels inspired. On a forum I use less formal language than on a blog - for an academic blog such as this, I wouldn't feel comfortable using emoticons or text speak and abbreviations, whereas on an online forum I would do.
Within a physical seminar there will always be one or two prominent speakers who lead the discussion, whereas in a blog everyone has an equal chance to make their point which they may not otherwise make. Therefore discussion when everyone has their own blog is perhaps more productive than in on a web forum or physical seminar as everyone can share their opinions without being interrupted. The only moderation with a blog is from the author who decides what is relevant enough to post on the blog and can also edit comments if he/she wishes.
Having grown up during the time "digital" and "media" became buzzwords, I feel I am media literate enough to be an advanced user of the computer/internet/blog/forum. Blogs can take time to get into which I learnt with this blog, but once you are used to the settings and what you want to write about, you can seemingly write forever.
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rincy x
ReplyDeleteHi James,
ReplyDeleteAnother succinct and well focused post.
Try to start demonstrating that the ideas and authors encountered in the unit work are informing your considerations. This should happen naturally as the weeks progress. It is certainly something that the tutors are looking out for.
Don't hold back on the blogging. It's good that you are posting something very close to my advice about the correct size of post and the minimum number, but if that's because you are limiting yourself, feel free to post more often. The regular evaluation of blogs makes up 50% of the marks, so go for it! (although it's true that the real meat of the unit is in the reading, researching and thinking that may/maynot make it into the blog (most won't of course).