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This is a Masters Research Paper in Communications
SPECS: 20 pages, 30+ sources , MLA citation style
TITLE: ?The Impact of the Blogs?
I have provided a general outline with some notes/examples to help you get started.
Please email me if you have any questions. My email is or call 914/469-8725.
Due: May, 8, 2005
I. INTRODUCTION:
II. HISTORY of BLOGS:
III. IMPACT: Politics, Journalism, Corporate World, Academia
A)Politics:
-Bloggers influence on mainstream media.
-Presidential candidate Howard Dean used blogs to rally supporters
-Example: Blogs detailing documents that CBS used to question President Bush?s -National Guard Service were picked apart by bloggers, who pointed out font differences in the documents and thus raised questions about their authenticicity. Scandal known in blogosphere ?as Rathergate.? Blogs have been credited with forcing an apology from CBS News anchor Dan Rather for use of questionable documents in las fall?s ?60 Minute?s Wednesday? report on President Bush National Guard service.
-Example: Bloggers detailed Senator Trent Lott?s glowing ments in 2002 about Strom Thurmond?s presidential run in 1948 during which he supported segregation. Later Lott gave up a bid to be Senate majority leader
-use other examples you feel worth mentioning
B) Journalism:
-Touch on the debate?critics of blogging phenomenon argue that there is a loss of journalisticintegrity, but I would argue that it is keeping traditional media in check (fact checkers) ?less agenda promoting by journalists/reporters..
-Infiltration and integration—weblogs are plementary media available to journalists.
-Use examples of popular newspapers/major Media Corporation that have incorporated weblogs into their organization.
-Blogs can be udated any time, the reporter can update from anywhere using a laptop (REAL TIME NEWS) i.e.) Bloggers immediate feedback from December?s tsunami in Asia, instant feedback from war in Iraq
-Promoting free speech, free-expression
(You may want to glean from this?up to you!)
Weblogs are a fairly new phenomenon, and their adaptation into the journalism is even more recent. Since the technology has only recently found popularity, its application into journalism is bound to be faced with problems. The most controversial problem is whether or not weblogs should remain unedited, as if they do the information is perhaps not as credible, but if they don?t, the spontaneity, and one of blogging?s greatest appeals is lost. On top of that, weblogs also face other disadvantages. Due to the nature of blogs, it?s possible that some of the content may offend readers. Furthermore, there?s also the possibility that reports may bee too personal, over analysed or feature meaningless observations.
Weblogs are a fairly spontaneous medium, and as a result of that, content of news reports in blogs may offend some readers. This is one of the biggest problems the journalism industry faces when using weblogs as a method of reporting the news. For example, in a film review in The New Republic magazine, blogger Gregg Easterbrook called two Hollywood executives ?Jewish Executives? who ?worship money above all else?. This ment was viewed by many readers as anti-semitic and the magazine was inundated with plaints. (Heyboer, 2003)
C) Corporations/business:
-How are pany?s using weblogs? Marketing—web diaries are moving from the personal to the professional without losing their personal touch, and it’s that inherent chatty format that makes blogs the ideal way to build credibility with customers.
-Company employees operating blogs about pany.
-Blog-related firings prompt calls for better policies. i.e.) Google employee, Microsoft contractor(Michael Hans), Delta Air emplyoyee (Simonetti)
-Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, General Motors and Boeing are just some of the panies that use blogs to municate with their employees and outsiders
D) Academia/Higher Education
E) Personal journal-style blogging:
IV. CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS
-Why do people blog? Solidarity, networking, social implications
(You may want to glean from this ?up to you!)
Personal blogging also has cultural and social implications in today?s modern society. As a subset of gender, this topic reflects on how social and cultural circumstances impact on people?s reasons for using weblogs.
Long before the terrorist attacks of 911 and the War on Iraq, people, mostly women, began using blogging to counter their country?s cultural beliefs and get their voices heard in a place where they could not be persecuted (Herring, Kouper, Scheidt and Wright, 2003). The history of other online discussion forums, as with weblogs, shows that a ?democratising? technology does not result in social equality and points to the importance of social and cultural factors surrounding technological adoptions and their use (Herring, Kouper, Scheidt and Wright, 2004).
Weblogs are providing a way for women in Iran to talk freely and ment on taboo subjects such as sex and boyfriends, share their fears and aspirations and are providing insight into an otherwise closed society (Hermida, 2002).
“Women in Iran cannot speak out frankly because of our Eastern culture and there are some taboos just for women, such as talking about sex or the right to choose your partner. I have the opportunity to talk about these things and share my experiences with others,? stated one female blogger (Hermida, 2002).
However, blogging in countries where culture affects what people can and cannot discuss isn?t just for women. Although in places such as Iran, Iraq and other middle eastern countries, where men have a higher status than women and have the ability to work, speak their mind and overall have more access to technology than women, there are still issues that men cannot talk about in public which they air in their blogs.
?It was a good tool to get to know what is happening in Iran, what the youth are talking about and what their problems are,? said Hossein Derakhshan, creator of one of the first blogs in Persian (Hermida, 2002).
The subtopic of gender discussed how gender affects the type of blog that a person uses. Adult males have been seen to use filter type blogs and k-logs, which are politcally and news based, while teenage females and females in general are the main consumers of journal blogs, which detail the days events and the bloggers thoughts (Herring, Kouper, Scheidt and Wright, 2004).
The reasons that shape which type of blog will be chosen on the basis of author demographics, such as age and gender, is affected by the social and cultural boundaries of society. The stereotypical roles of men and women, such that the men earn the money and the women take care of the house and their children, affects the fact that women like to talk more about personal things, rather than men who talk about business, news, current events and politics, this is evident in the type of blogs that they choose. Teenagers are similar to women in that they are experiencing new things all the time, going to school and dealing with physical and emotional changes and therefore they need an outlet to voice their feelings (Barista, 2004).
Blogging is just part of the mix of reality TV, celebrity exposed and live news being beamed into our living rooms around the clock (Blogging ? The New Voyeurism 2002). It can be seen that the cultural and social trends that are prevelent in the world today, although varying from country to country, have a major affect on how people interact with others, how they portray themselves and what type of weblog they use. Overall these boundaries shape the way the society works and the way that people view personal blogging.
V. FUTURE:
? Where is blogging going? (I would argue that blogging is not just a trendy thing, but rather here to stay.)
-You might want to pare the weblog impact to that of the printing press, radio, TV and/or telephone.
(Tie-in somewhere in the paper) Marshall McLuhan: Blogging is going to revolutionize the way we get information and will shake-up the sanitized, puritanized, homogenized corporate media plex, Marshall McLuhan, in his groundbreaking work ?Understanding media?, recognized how fundamental media is to learning and how media can effect the socio-psychological construct of our culture. Also, very importantly, I think, McLuhan was really focused on media?s impact on the individual, he defined media as technological extensions of the human body. Back in 1964, when color TV was catching on and long before the Apple Computer, McLuhan wrote of electronic media as extensions of our nervous system. Talk about presience?.Now we can share our news, our perceptions, our experiences, our insights, our understandings. This collective munication can and will bee the body of knowledge that informs our culture and society. If the medium is the message, then the message is simple — we are taking back the collective understanding of our society and our culture away from the media gatekeepers who decide what it is we should know and how we should know it long before they report.
Blogging?the evolution of cyberrelationships—sort of a manifestation of McLuhan?s ?Global Village?. He predicted that electronic technology would decentralize power and information, which would allow people to live in areas far from major urbane center and still have access to the same information.
VI. Conclusion
