Image: Blogging Cage provides tips on how to make your blog a successful, thriving business here.
The blog has become a trend so popular that it is almost safe to say that it has taken over the Internet. Millions of people post on blogs daily whether using social media sites or specialized blogging services. Pinterest has aided the dissemination of these blogs by fostering an environment where users "pin" an image, most normally that is linked to a blog. The Internet has become a blogosphere, a world where anyone with a laptop and computer can have their voice heard on any and every topic. Rettberg and Miller/Shepherd decode the nature of blogs and help debunk the nuances of this new mode of communication.
Rettberg makes an important distinction between a medium and a genre, a concept that has been challenged by the Internet. A medium once thought to be the mode of communicating, such as the broad differences between print, broadcast, and electronic mediums now can be further classified by the different types of communications on the Internet. Social media, blogs, chatrooms are all different genres of the Internet medium where messages are being disseminated. Rettberg says that within this genre however, there are sub-genres which classify the types of blogs that are being written based on the genre's selective limitations. Although both authors agree that most blogs are similar in basic functions, such as posts, comments, frequent updates, links, etc. there is a clear difference in the purposes of some blogs and others. Rettberg says the main sub-genres of blogs are diary style, filter blogs, and topic driven blogs. Miller and Shepherd say these sub-genres preform two social actions: self-expression and community development.
Miller and Shepherd asses the bog as a genre with a rhetorical focus in mind. They discuss the popularization of the word blog for this deliberative function of communicating as the reason it can be considered a genre. Miller and Shepherd's entire article focuses on the genre analysis of the blog, especially in relation to kairos. They define kairos as "socially perceived space time." This can be understood as how the blog's function is fitting to the constantly changing environment of the Internet. Miller and Shepherd inherently touch on Rettberg's classification of the genre of diary style blogs to show how the genre invites both public and private dynamics. Rettberg says a diary style blog is one that is open to the public, "deliberately written to be shared." But Miller and Shepherd include the contradicting tension of privacy, citing examples of how bloggers create these types of diary style blogs and wish for more privacy, not realizing that their creating a blog is a public act on the Internet. However this can also be seen as a response to the voyeuristic nature of the Internet and its users. They also describe how the earliest of blogs are what Rettberg defines as filter blogs, a way to share the constantly changing interests of the blogger. This can be a list of links chronologically organized with little or no commentary.
Rettberg complicates her argument for blogs when she discusses the topics of bloggers as "citizen journalists" and symbiosis. She clarifies that most bloggers do not see themselves as journalists, but these bloggers have started to blur the line between journalism and blogging. She argues that blogs intersect with journalism in three ways: by giving first hand reports from ongoing events, by telling stories that might as well have been told by journalists, and as "filterbloggers." In her first two points, Rettberg applies perspective as the comparable factor between a blogger and a journalist. Since a blogger can easily be given access to a news-worthy event, they are also given the same perspective as a journalist reporting on that event. In this way her second point comes naturally. Bloggers are now setting out to tell stories that would be usually reported from mainstream media journalists. The concept of a citizen journalist implies that they are not a journalist by profession nor are they pretending to be. Instead, bloggers act as citizens who report on the Internet. However, as Rettberg tries to argue that bloggers are just as qualified to report the news as journalists although they don't claim to, Miller and Shepherd describe the generic exigence that tests this assertion. They say that bloggers blog to validate the self, not to inform. This lacks the objectivity that journalists are known for in news writing.
Rettberg questionably insists that this notion is not a negative one. She describes symbiosis as the relationship that bloggers have as journalists of the internet. Rettberg says bloggers are acting as the gatewatchers of the internet, paralleling the theory to gatekeepers of traditional media. By acting as gatewatchers, bloggers are creating media instead of consuming it. However, Rettberg claims that bloggers due this as amateurs- although she insists this is not a negative notion. She compares the use of the word amateurs to an Olympic athlete in the sense that they are not being paid for their contribution. This refers back to the notion of citizen journalist, contrasted with professional journalists. However, Rettberg fails to address that Olympic athletes had to train and compete to reach the Olympics. These athletes had to prove their talent and skills against others and prove they were the most skilled for the competition. Although they are not receiving compensation, their skills are evaluated. The same cannot be said for bloggers, who can be reporting falsities as well as truths. This is a tricky generalization that Rettberg makes in her case for citizen journalists and fails in her aim to prove that bloggers are not inexperienced.
Although Rettberg does her argument justice by citing some modern examples of blogs, her argument fails by touting that the blogger is akin to the journalist. Miller and Shepherd provide a more objective view of the genre of the blog, analyzing its rhetorical functions and environment.
Works Cited:
Miller, Carolyn R., and Dawn Shepherd. “Blogging As Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog.” Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs. Ed. Laura J. Gurak, Smiljana Antonijevic, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff, and Jessica Reyman. June 2004. Available online at http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.html
Rettberg, Jill Walker. Blogging. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2008. Excerpts from “What Is a Blog?”, “Citizen Journalists,” and “Blogging as Narrative.” 4-30, 84-110, 111-126.
Looking back on this blog post later in the semester, it is interesting to think about Miller and Shepherd’s thoughts on blogs in relation to kairos now that we have read and discussed Killingsworth’s thoughts on appeals to time. I think it might be fun for your final portfolio to edit and maybe add some more of your thoughts on how these two texts synthesize. Do Killingsworth and Miller/Shepherd agree on their definitions of kairos? Do you think Killingsworth types of appeals to time (rhetoric of crisis, rhetoric as forward motion, etc) apply to blogs? I feel like blogs could fall under Killingsworth’s idea of rhetoric as forward motion. A blog follows time consecutively and is constanly moving forward with new posts. A blog is a kind of “time journey” that Killingsworth states in his text.
ReplyDeleteMoving on, Miller/Shepherd’s idea of time influencing blogs is spot on. The medium of blogging developed from a need of society for a timely, personal space on which an individual could give his/her thoughts on daily life or whatever else the author chose. Therefore, blogging has always been centered around time. Blogs were created so they could be updated with current information daily or at least several times a week. In my opinion, infrequent updates on blogs defeat the whole purpose of them. A blogger seeks to be in constant communication with his readers. This instant communication is disrupted when an author posts sparingly. Also, you say that bloggers are upset once they figure out their diary-style blogs can be read by the public. I understand what you mean, but I would reword this sentence a little bit because I don’t think they are necessarily “upset.” Maybe they have to come to terms with the fact that their thoughts are open to the public, but they signed up for that when they created a blog with a website that has public blogs. Authors of diary-style blogs might have to get used to people commenting and disagreeing with their personal thoughts, which might be uncomfortable at first.
I also think your thoughts on Rettburg’s idea of a citizen journalist are interesting. I wonder if there will ever be a time when a blogger is considered to have equal authority and access as a journalist. Also, I wonder if this time comes, will a blogger even be able to be called “a blogger” anymore? Or does the same levels of authority morph a blogger into a journalist, and then the argument about their differences are irrelevant? Also, in your final conclusion, I don’t think that Rettburg’s argument fails because she says a blogger is equal to a journalist. Personally, I did not get that conclusion. I think she recognizes the differences and understands that one is not superior to the other. They are just different kinds of authorship.