Main Blog Post – Week 7: Blog as Self Management Tool

B) Lovink (Reader, page 222) also argues that: “No matter how much talk there is of community and mobs, the fact remains that blogs are primarily used as a tool to manage the self”. Discuss the argument by giving an example of a blog. Specify chosen argument in your answer.

We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. -N. Scott Momaday

While it is more concerned for its relation with the news industry, the act of blogging was first seen as a way of diary keeping and discussed on its close features to diary on various aspects. According to Lovink (2007:6), the idea of “blogging as a ‘technology of the self’ was first developed by Foucault. Blogs, in this sense, are more of a tool for private conversations like the records of therapist’s rather than a public forum open for discussion to the online community. More specifically, Lovink (2007:28) argued that ‘Blogs are used for the need to structure one’s life, to clear up the mess, to master the immerse flows of information, as to PR and promotion.’ A blog call ‘vital self management’ created by Visma Mesley makes a typical example for the use of blogs  as keeping track of life experiences, perfect management of self-image, self-expression, and self-promotion. (http://vitalself-management.com/blog/)

Solove (2007:24) pointed out that ‘many blogs are more akin to diaries than news articles, op-ed columns, or scholarship’. Statistic showed that bloggers most commonly write about their personal experience, while only 11% blogs are about politics. Visma Mesley’s blog is kept in daily basis; her blog gives a clear view of her life, and her personal experiences and activities.It is as Medosch (2008) suggested, Mesley’s blog is simply a place where people can mix personal thoughts of what is happening in his life, reports, and comments on what is going on in the Web and the World that he lives in.

Blogs offer a way for one-to-many conversations. ‘Whatever the type, purpose, or content of a blog, it remains a virtual environment controlled by the author, where, unlike face-to-face communication, a person is only what is expressed in manifest content. (Tramell, 2004:3) Thus, Blogs offer its user better or even full control of self-expression and better management of self-image. Blogs, like other social networks, fulfils the need of self-promotion. The choice of theme, the colours in the space, the content we create all conveys a sense of the self. As Mesley blogs about her fear, and writes therapy-like posts such as ‘open your heart’, ‘let the past slip away’ and ‘stop punishing myself for fear’, she is providing not only the readers, but also herself the solutions to cope with negative emotions and to cope with the ups and downs in her life.

Furthermore, Looking throughout Mesley’s entire website, her blog keeps tracks of her life journey of all challenges and triumphs. By commenting her own life experiences in the blog, she was subjectively promoting her own idea of ‘vital self-management’, which is created by her own belief system and her personal sense of the concept.

 

Reference

Lovink, G. (2007) ‘Blogging, The Nihilist Impulse’, Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, London: Routledge, pp. 1-38

Solove, D.J. (2007) ‘How the Free Flow of Information Liberates ad Constrains Us’, The Future of Reputation: Gossip Rumour and Privacy on the Internet, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 17-49

Medosch, A. (2008) ‘Paid in Full: Copyright, Piracy and the Real Currency of Cultural Production’, Deptforth. TV Diaries II: Pirate Strategies,London: Deptforth TV. pp. 98-100

Tramell, K. (2004) ‘Examining the New Influencers: A Self-Presentation Study of A-List Blogs’ <http://www.kayesweetser.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/trammell-keshelashvili-2006-self-presentation-on-blogs.pdf&gt; Last accessed: 04/06/2011

Mesley,V. ‘Vital Self Management’ < http://vitalself-management.com/blog/&gt; Last accessed: 04/06/2011

Main Blog Post – Week 4: Blogs versus Mainstream Media

Question: Russell (et al.) compares elite media and institutions with bloggers and ponders the following question: “Do bloggers, with their editorial independence, collaborative structure and merit-based popularity more effectively inform the public?” (Reader, page 136). Do you agree? Use examples to illustrate your point of view.

With the rapid growth in new media consumption, there comes the revolution of journalism and media distribution. Today, the threshold for producing media contents is much lower. With the access to internet, anyone can practically write a story or report a piece of news. According to Solove (2007), by the end of July 2006, there were about 50 million blogs, and the number of blog users keeps climbing by 175,000 each day. Although both professional and amateur journalists use the internet as it provides faster and broader channel for information flow, blogs are more often used as the platform for amateurs to raise their voices in public sphere. While internet allows alternative voices and massive information flow, I argue that information provided by the non-institutional and unprofessional bloggers are mostly beneficial and useful for effective communication of information.

The practice of mainstream media or traditional media have long been criticised for its centralised structure and the media agenda setting and planning strategies. Russell (2008:66) illustrated the downside of mainstream media in the reporting of Iraq war, stating that ‘so-called embedded reporters in Iraq are being trumped by personal emails and photos from soldiers’, and editorial opinions are in all aspects of mainstream media news publishing and programming. In contrast, blogs allows any Iraq citizen or tourist to post first hand information, and their attitude towards the war without any screening or editorial processing. In this sense, blog empowers users in Iraq and specialists from the world to come and put together a more comprehensive report on the war, and thus provides readers with information from different perspectives of varies social groups. Moreover, as Russell (2008:69) noted, ‘the web was by far the most dynamic source of information of every kind, a flood of images, stories, podcasts, video, critiques, corrections and metanarratives’.  With a collaborative structure, Blogs, therefore, fulfils the need of integrating open and interactive messages that traditional media is craving for. (Lovink 2007)

Nonetheless, information posted by amateurs is usually questioned of its authenticity and credibility. Since bloggers usually do not verify their sources, confirm the truth, or care about the use of words, the quality of blog contents are at risk. In fact, many of the information from blogs are pure rumours and noises. (Lovink 2007) On the other hand, Solove (2007: 37) argued that ‘the blogosphere as a whole has a better error-correction machinery than the conventional media do’. The problem, therefore, comes down to how much truth a medium can bear.

To conclude, Blogs opened up the opportunity for amateurs to have their voices heard. Its collaborative structure allows for more efficient interaction and integration of different opinions and messages. Blogs, however, as well as any medium for communication, contain noises and false information which disrupt the effective communication in public sphere.

 

Reference

Lovink, G. (2007) ‘Blogging, The Nihilist Impulse’, Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, London: Routledge, pp. 1-38

Russell, A. et al (2008) ‘Culture: Media Convergence and Networked Culture’, Networked Publics, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 43-76

Solove, D.J. (2007) ‘How the Free Flow of Information Liberates ad Constrains Us’, The Future of Reputation: Gossip Rumour and Privacy on the Internet, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 17-49