5.3 Find some well read blogs outside of the New Media Cultures community that impress you and analyse how the author respondents use the blog as a forum to represent themselves and share ideas.
One blog I have recently stumbled upon is Jezebel. This blog is targeted at women and the tag line reads “Jezebel: Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women”. It very much reminds me of a magazine in the type of stories it blogs about and the informal tone it uses which I would say appeals to women, giving the impression that it is fun and light hearted.
One thing which I think is particularly interesting about this blog is that it has a regular post called “Reader Roundup” where there is a summary of the best and worst comments made on the blog of that day. This sort of acts as a way by which appropriate and inappropriate comments are deemed, and therefore gives a good indication of the “way things are done” in this blog.
Whilst I think that lots of the comments can be a bit bitchy on this blog, lots of the stories also have the same bitchy tone, for example, “Kate Bosworth Is Happy To Be Attacked By Appliqué" and "We're Just Not That Into This Month's Marie Claire". To me it seems as if that in order to be fit in with this blog you have to have strong opinions and not be afraid to tell people about them, especially when it comes to fashion and beauty. People tend to present themselves as having strong opinions, which I think often boarders on bitchy and often disagreements often immerge.
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Friday, 20 February 2009
5.2 Girl With A One Track Mind
5.2 Do some online research into blogs as a new media genre: their origins, development etc. and share your findings in your entries. What forms of expression are they really good for?
A quick google of popular blogs quickly led me to the “Bloggies”, annual awards given out to popular blogs. From here one blog which particularly grabbed my attention was “Girl With a One Track Mind” , which won the award of Best British or Irish Web Blog in 2006 and 2007.
This blog originally was used by author Zie Margolis to discuss the ins and outs of her sex life, often in graphic detail. In her biography she says she wrote the blog because “A sexist double-standard about male vs. female sexuality still exists, and which chastises women if they express sexual wants and needs; I hoped my blog would provide a counter-balance to this old-fashioned attitude.” The blog was intensely popular, with 6 million visitors over the last four and a half years and averaging 150,000 a month.
I would argue that using a blog in order to update this old-fashioned view was incredibly effective, in that the sheer volume of views she had led people to see that female attitudes towards sex were vastly different to how everyone had assumed they were. And Zoe’s blog provided an outlet for this new more empowered attitude to become more mainstream, and for other women to not feel like they should be ashamed for sharing attitudes which would usually be considered to be more masculine with men when it comes to sex.
Other mediums would be extremely difficult to put this view across, as the anonymity of the Internet is what made Zoe feel like she were able to share these feelings online, and the anonymity meant that people were less afraid to admit they agreed with her. Zoe went to great lengths to ensure that no one would find out her identity, and although in the end she was “outed”, I cannot think of other mediums which would have allowed her to continue to share these stories for so long and in such an honest and open manner.
A quick google of popular blogs quickly led me to the “Bloggies”, annual awards given out to popular blogs. From here one blog which particularly grabbed my attention was “Girl With a One Track Mind” , which won the award of Best British or Irish Web Blog in 2006 and 2007.
This blog originally was used by author Zie Margolis to discuss the ins and outs of her sex life, often in graphic detail. In her biography she says she wrote the blog because “A sexist double-standard about male vs. female sexuality still exists, and which chastises women if they express sexual wants and needs; I hoped my blog would provide a counter-balance to this old-fashioned attitude.” The blog was intensely popular, with 6 million visitors over the last four and a half years and averaging 150,000 a month.
I would argue that using a blog in order to update this old-fashioned view was incredibly effective, in that the sheer volume of views she had led people to see that female attitudes towards sex were vastly different to how everyone had assumed they were. And Zoe’s blog provided an outlet for this new more empowered attitude to become more mainstream, and for other women to not feel like they should be ashamed for sharing attitudes which would usually be considered to be more masculine with men when it comes to sex.
Other mediums would be extremely difficult to put this view across, as the anonymity of the Internet is what made Zoe feel like she were able to share these feelings online, and the anonymity meant that people were less afraid to admit they agreed with her. Zoe went to great lengths to ensure that no one would find out her identity, and although in the end she was “outed”, I cannot think of other mediums which would have allowed her to continue to share these stories for so long and in such an honest and open manner.
Sunday, 25 January 2009
My Experience of ‘New Media’.
In the broad sense I would consider New Media to include all media, because at some point it must’ve been new. However, more recently I would consider New Media to mainly be a term I would associate with the Internet and the new ways in which people can interact through it, and access it in more convenient ways, for example on your mobile or wirelessly thanks to Wi-Fi.
The main two purposes I use the Internet and New Media for are keeping in touch with friends and family and learning. Social networking, such as Facebook and Myspace mean that I am able to keep in touch with old school friends who now live too far away to be able to catch up with face-to-face. However, it is not limited to just far away friends, Facebook particularly means that I am able to share content with friends who live much closer and I see almost daily, by sharing pictures and moods etc. As the majority of people I know use it, I would consider it to be the simplest and most effective way of communicating with these people. Similarly, instant messaging and e-mails I also use to keep in contact with friends and family, simply because they are so quick and easy.
In terms of learning I use a number of blogs to find out about specific topics, for example, ones about new bands, existing bands (new songs, performances etc.) and for seeking what I would consider more “expert” information on a topic I do not know much about. Similarly, I use forums to find out up to date information as they are updated so frequently, regularly and by a large amount of people with a common interest.
Ways in which I prefer not to use New Media are for interacting with people I do not know in real life. Whilst I know this is possible through chat rooms and within forums and social networking, I prefer to distance myself from this. I would say that the main reason for doing so is because when speaking to someone face to face you are able to, to a certain degree, gauge who they are and what they are about, via online mediums it’s much easier to lie, and much harder to detect that you’re being lied to, which I feel has created a sense of distrust when meeting new people online.
The main two purposes I use the Internet and New Media for are keeping in touch with friends and family and learning. Social networking, such as Facebook and Myspace mean that I am able to keep in touch with old school friends who now live too far away to be able to catch up with face-to-face. However, it is not limited to just far away friends, Facebook particularly means that I am able to share content with friends who live much closer and I see almost daily, by sharing pictures and moods etc. As the majority of people I know use it, I would consider it to be the simplest and most effective way of communicating with these people. Similarly, instant messaging and e-mails I also use to keep in contact with friends and family, simply because they are so quick and easy.
In terms of learning I use a number of blogs to find out about specific topics, for example, ones about new bands, existing bands (new songs, performances etc.) and for seeking what I would consider more “expert” information on a topic I do not know much about. Similarly, I use forums to find out up to date information as they are updated so frequently, regularly and by a large amount of people with a common interest.
Ways in which I prefer not to use New Media are for interacting with people I do not know in real life. Whilst I know this is possible through chat rooms and within forums and social networking, I prefer to distance myself from this. I would say that the main reason for doing so is because when speaking to someone face to face you are able to, to a certain degree, gauge who they are and what they are about, via online mediums it’s much easier to lie, and much harder to detect that you’re being lied to, which I feel has created a sense of distrust when meeting new people online.
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