What I Have Learned from Being a Tumblr Blogger.

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Blogging has and always will be for me a way to express my opinions, feelings, and inner thoughts. I have found it to be both therapeutic and informing. I have grown as a person from the open environment of my Tumblr blog space. I have been able to see different perspectives, the rawest truths on high level issues, and the ability for human beings to sensitive and humane.

Before I dive deeper into this discussion let me begin buy offering a crash course in the world of Tumblr. Tumblr unlike other blogs is a platform for microblogging. Quotes are preferred to large blocks of text although they can still be found on those who chose to compose their individual blogs that way. While scrolling on your dash or main frame you are going to come across a multitude of things from cat memes to social issues. I have found Tumblr’s discourse community to have a multitude of smaller discourse communities called fathoms. These fathoms have different languages, known symbols, and leaders that have all been developed around a joint or popular interest. I have seen fathoms destroy other people who knew nothing of their lingo but I have also seen them protect their own as if they were brother and sister. The most important aspect of Tumblr I believe is that it is a platform that does not tolerate inequality. Lastly, it should be known that just as Vegas what happens on Tumblr stays on Tumblr. Your personal blog and what you reblog for many people in a way is private although it is for the entire community to see. When I first became involved with Tumblr I was timid about what I shared but after a while I came to understand the community and its open atmosphere I came to understand that even friends I followed on my blog did not judge me based on the content I shared.

To begin with, the first thing I learned from Tumblr is being truthful in all aspects of reporting. “The more informal personal nature of most blog writing is due to the fact that most blogs are by a single author. This places priority on voice” (Carroll, 178). Being your truest self on Tumblr is of the utmost important. Showcasing your interests and believes builds your credibility and following crowd. Just like any other blog it is important to always report the truth and be accountable for what you have written and published. I have seen many times Tumblr users speculate and have had other users do the work to correct their inaccuracies. Tumblr above all promotes the honesty is the policy slogan. As a member of the community we strive to help and maintain the betterment of our fellow bloggers.

The freedom of expression is another important aspect of Tumblr or any other blogging site I believe. “So subscribing to any code of ethics is voluntary. To maintain or preserve a writer’s freedom of expression, it would have to be so” (Carroll 185).  What a person writes whether agreeable or not is not to be tampered with. If you have an opinion comment, or share, but do not for any reason flame a fellow blogger for their right to expression. Additionally, as mentioned within that quote for any new comer or outsider it should be understood that there is a code by which all users of said blogging community adheres to. As to avoid misinterpretations read further into the blog and the author to understand perspective.

Lastly, it is important to never change any ones work, remove identifying tags, or markings. People have spent time pouring in effort and heart into their work; presenting their voices in what they believe to be the best representation of themselves and ideas. Even authors should not change their work after it has been published, “So, after something has been posted, editing should be limited to fixing typos, smoothing out grammar, and modifying unfortunate word choices, but no more.” (Carroll, 189). Work published should have been revised before and  what is said has been said. Bloggers must understand that if they do not want to misinterpreted that they have to be as clear and concise as possible in order to be understood properly.

Tumblr has taught me to also be truthful and represent myself in the best light as I see fit. My words, photos, and what I choose to post are a clear representation of my online identity. In order to be not only an abiding Tumblr user but an active blogger I must respect guidelines set by not only Tumblr but the general blogging community as a whole.

 

Response Blog #4 – Ethics for Bloggers

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As a new blogger, I find blogging to be one of the best ways for self expression. Writing has always been my thing and as a shy child, it was my way of expressing my thoughts and the things I wanted to talk about.  At secondary school, my essays would often be displayed around the building and that was a confidence booster.  So I can see why so many people enjoy it. The idea that we can attract a community around us and singularly share our creative content has a powerful effect on bloggers.  But as with each technology, blogging has its affordances and constraints. With blogging sites being so easy to setup, it is important for each blogger to design their webpage with integrity and responsibility.

Although bloggers enjoy the fact that they can build relationships with their readers, which involves making it easy for them to connect and share information, I think what most people like is that sense of uncensored freedom that blogging affords.  However, it is that same uncensored freedom that Carroll warns against in Writing for Blogs (Carroll 184). Without a standardized code of ethics, the casual style of writing is often misused and misguided.  While it is true that not all bloggers are journalists, Carroll says that bloggers should seek truth and be honest, minimize harm, act independently and be accountable (Carroll 185).  I believe that responsible bloggers have an obligation to their readers to show that they can be trusted.  Depending on both content and context, the public have a right to reliable information.

I believe that the most important quality of blogging is to be genuine and honest.  But being honest isn’t always easy.  Advertising is growing vigorously and online media has given it that boost it needs to flourish. Bloggers are bombarded with offers of free products in exchange for them giving a review on their webpage.  How can viewers be sure of the integrity of the blogger and the content?  Bloggers have to be mindful of obligations that could influence their content and exercise caution even if it means that they have to refuse products or services.  It is far better not to align creator content with advertisements but if there is an agreement, then bloggers should be prepared to offer full disclosure.

It is a blogger’s duty to uphold the truth even if that means admitting a mistake.  Carroll’s advice is that if a correction is needed, the blogger should first of all, take responsibility for the error and correct the mistake immediately (Carroll 188). The best way for bloggers to guard against inaccuracies is to be clear between what is an opinion and what a fact.

 

The Effects of Accessibility. . .

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When I think of blogs, I think of my own personal blog Black Attire Aficionado, The Blonde Salad, The Finance Bar, Business Insider, Buzzfeed, Elite Daily, J. Crew Blog are just some of the ones that come to mind. The blogs above are diverse in many ways, I never thought of them as a discourse community until now. What these blogs hope to achieve is to bring users together to engage in variety of topics and give users a chance to engage in discussions and connect through doing so. As a blogger myself, I realized lately I’ve failed in the consistency department. I have been extremely busy over the past four months and have not had time to contribute to my blog that I love so much. In chapter 7 of the Carroll textbook, he creates a list of the “Ten Steps to Better Blogging,” it goes as follows, write everyday, schedule your blogging time, be authentic, carve our a niche, be curious and take lots of notes, engage, learn the software, promote yourself, breakup the text and be ethical. The list is sort of the undisputed rules of successful blogging. Since many of your materials exist online it is essential to practice these rules. I think if each of us can practice and perfect these rules, we will be very successful in our careers. 

During 2009-10 there was a massive rise in fashion blogs— it was unprecedented! Back then fashion bloggers suffered from not being seen as an authentic source or credible source for information. It was seen as a “hobby” to take photos of your outfit, write silly posts about trends. In the infancy phase of fashion blogging, many bloggers like The Bryan Boy (the forefather of fashion blogging) were not taken serious. Many fashion houses and photographs discredit as an enterprise. Fast forward to today, fashion designers are begging bloggers to promote their brands. The fashion designers send bloggers free clothes/accessories, invitations to shows, getaway trips, you name it they do it. Additionally in on page 197 (Carroll), he poses the question is there a major difference between journalist and bloggers? Is one not the other and vice versa? Just like the fashion bloggers who have changed fashion due to social media and other technologies, are they less credible? For instance when I take a photo on my iPhone and then edit it and post it to Instagram and I receive likes, am I now a photographer? Is calling myself a photographer and in doing so, does it discredit “professional” photographers? In some ways it makes us equal but I’m sure a few would say that Instagramers have ruined or taken away from the true art of photography, that moment of waiting for a perfect shot whether its been hours or years. . . Maybe everything is becoming to easy in this world. How can any decent work of art be consider a work of art if it is so easy/ accessible now? I think perhaps that is the true challenge for any writer, is to stand out in a sea of look a likes . . .

Maybe for all fields, there will always be a fight for individuality, to be unique, to have a gift unlike anyone else.

Response 5- Blogging

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“New communications rarely eliminate those that preceded them..” (Caroll, 17). Blogging is a fairly new form of communication that is a common and often very sought after source of information. There are various forms of blogs or purposes for them, diary style blogs that catalog a persons daily life or experience and ones that are opinionated or news oriented that cover a variety of views and issues. Blogs like The Gothamist , Horacio Jones and Humans of New York are examples of these. The Gothamist is news I often read it to catch up on local happenings and whats going on in the world. Horacio Jones is a personal blog where he shares his views and thoughts on love and life experiences. Humans of New York is my favorite of the three because his blog is photo oriented, he chronicles the life stories of the people he meets on the streets of NYC as well as people he meets on the trips he takes around the world. Three blogs, three purposes all with different words on the screen but written in similar fashion.

In chapter one of Caroll it goes into how to be effective in your writing, how to be aware of the audience you’re speaking to or how big that audience may be. The content also matters, siting never to be too general and make sure the content is well organized. I thought about how often i lose interest or close a site because its not well organized and too difficult to navigate. When we use a site as the book says we layer (Caroll, 100) meaning we scan scroll and surf to find the things we need, rarely do we sit and read the entire content to serve a purpose. Blogs are great sources of information because they’re like a house and the hyperlinks they can provide are like the rooms of a house (Caroll 117) and a great example of this is Wikipedia which uses the ability to hyperlink often. When i click on a wiki page i find sometimes dozens of links to other related sources and articles on the topic, the possibilities are seemingly endless when many sites use this ability creating a rabbit hole of information (Caroll 126).

When i read a blog any blog, no matter what its host is i wonder how accurate it is. In todays world media comes at us so fast its hard to sort fact from speculation or media bait. Even major broadcast stations like CBS have had their share of faux pas as noted on page 177 of Carolls chapter 7. The station failed to verify the documents they aired and it was a blogger named Buckhead that lit up the internet with replies. Users were able to verify and debunk the documents and add their input to the issue in a very rapid time frame. CBS later admitted they hadn’t done their homework. So is that blog one form of journalism hawking another or is that blogger just one person sharing their views. Where do we draw the lines, where does accountability begin and end. Noted in the text is the reality that a code of ethics doesn’t create or guarantee ethical behavior which is absolutely true. Too often we see doctors defrauding the health care system for payouts, lawyers stealing money from unknowing clients and investors embezzling money from their clients. In those professions a solid set of rules govern the practice and repercussions exist yet its still a problem.

So when we think about journalism, blogging, online interaction who’s to say whats right and wrong. What determines who a journalist is because in a way we are all authors online but the audience we reach varies greatly. A major corporation or organization publishing online would be scrutinized much harder than a college student writing an op-ed piece for their campus paper. I think when we’re writing in any forum we need to be mindful of who may see it, as Professor Belli said about our blogs and being mindful that the people we hyper link may be reading, when we tweet or share things theres no end to how far they’ll go. Think about the shared posts we see on Facebook and the trail they leave, millions of people see that. Blogs are a terrific new age medium in sharing, news, ideas, stories and concerns but i think the true verdict of what rules govern that is still out right now.

Should Wikipedia encourage writing from an embodied position?

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Gruwell argues that “Wikipedia’s insistence on separating embodied subjectivity from the production of knowledge limits the site’s ability to facilitate any substantial, subversive feminist rhetorical action” (Gruwell, 117).

Putting gender issues aside, I wonder what would happen if Wikipedia did encourage it’s contributors to include their personal experience. As an encyclopedia, I think it has to be neutral and should not be used to push personal agendas.  Afterall, it’s not personal.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

The confines of traditional journalism: how far can you push them?

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“What happens to the traditional photojournalist in the new media landscape? “It could be a really negative thing,” Applewhite said. “News agencies are often happy with random snapshots from Egypt and they don’t necessarily need professional, thoughtful content all the time.” (“Photojournalism in the Age of New Media)

Throughout the article there are hints that new media is pushing the ethical boundaries of traditional journalism. Do you feel the introduction of participatory journalism is further pushing these boundaries?

Class Notes 9/24

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Reminder each of us will meet with Professor Jill at the times we discussed last week, we have class tomorrow at 2:00 or 2:15pm 🙂

Please review the composing guidelines because blog posts are too general and need to show that you understand the readings. Also, be sure to finish posting class comments, respond to the class discussions, re-read Chapter 3 if you have not yet done so, and come to class with extensive notes on all the readings.

For the first 25-30 minutes of class we will have a lengthy discussion on “Wikipedia’s Politics of Exclusion: Gender, Epistemology, and Feminist Rhetorical (In)acton,” so please read and come prepared.

 

When writing your blog it is important to keep in mind these key points for a good blog.

1. Main idea

2. Your blog should ask a question that aims to start a conversation (get feedback)

3. Stay on track

4. An opinion or interpretation/ analysis–spark provocation

5. Include multimedia (graphics, videos etc.)

6. Unique/thoughtful

7. Relatable

8. Personal narrative

 

Definitions

Patriarchal-the male head of a family, tribe, community, church, order, etc.

Exclusion-to shut or keep out; prevent the entrance of

Privilege-a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most.

Epistemology-a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.

Methodologies-a set or system of methods, principles, and rules for regulating a given discipline, as in the arts or sciences.

Subversive- tending or intending to subvert or overthrow, destroy, or undermine an established or existing system, especially a legally constituted government or a set of beliefs.

Discourse community- is a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about those goals.

Rhetoric- is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the capability of writers or speakers to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations.

Provocation-something that incites, instigates, angers, or irritates

Crowdsourcing Gruwell’s “Wikipedia’s Politics of Exclusion” article

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Here, we’ll continue the discussion we began in class today about Gruwell’s recent article, “Wikipedia’s Politics of Exclusion: Gender, Epistemology, and Feminist Rhetoric (In)action.”

We did some freewriting already on what ways Wikipedia “privileges partriarchal methodologies and epistemologies” that are “exclusionary” and then considered in our class discussion how “Wikipedia functions as a rhetorical discourse community” (118).

This is a challenging article (on many levels), so let’s first tackle what the article is actually saying by crowdsourcing Gruwell’s main claims (thesis, points, evidence in support of those points) here. Then we can also unpack them, asking clarifying questions, complicating them, challenging then with provocations and counter-arguments, etc.

Don’t forget to include citations in MLA format when you refer to the text.

To code or not code?: That is the question

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We should consider ourselves architects of spaces and places, and authors and guides for interactors navigating through these often networked, socially mediated spaces (Carroll 31).

We have been discussing all semester the mediated, interactive, networked, multimodal nature of new media composing. However, it is often easy to forget about some crucial aspects of how digital (new media) texts are actually composed, what kind of “behind-the-scenes” stuff needs to happen for us, as “architects of spaces and places” in the digital world actually can build things.

A number of our readings have mentioned the importance of having a working knowledge of coding (as well as the workings of the web more generally), what it is as well as the basics of how to actually do it. Consider the following few excerpts:

  • “He [Marc Prensky] further explained that the next language to be mastered is the language of programming” (Cohen & Kenny 6).
  • “We think the savvy user should have a working knowledge of how the web works and why. Understand the basic functions of the systems of participation will help you to speak the language and create on a higher cognitive level, enabling you to become a leader in the digital environment and make higher-quality work” (Cohen & Kenny 49).
  • “Although many web writers and editors aren’t asked to build websites from scratch, they should be aware of how web-authoring code works and how it makes digital content manifest in a browser window (Carroll 45).
  • “Web writers and editors do not necessarily need to become proficient in these web programming languages, nor do they necessarily need to know how to develop an app. But it certainly helps to be able to hand-code pages and to understand the capacities and limitations of these coding languages” (Carroll 45).

So, the major debate at stake here is: “to code or not code?” Some thoughts, to get the conversation rolling:

  • What, if any, is your knowledge of coding?
  • Do you have any experience coding? What are you feelings towards coding? (fear, annoyance, empowerment, etc.)
  • Do new media writers need to know how to code?
  • How has the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) nature of much of today’s digital platforms changing the need for (and our knowledge of) coding? Is coding necessary?
  • Do you feel that coding should be an integral part of the work you do as a student in the PTW major, and beyond in your career?
  • How/why is (or could) coding be useful in your professional life? What is to be gained by coding? (is anything lost by it?)

(friendly reminder: don’t forget to check out the purpose / expectations for this, and other Class Discussions, before you get started here)