In their post “Blogging
as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog” Carolyn Miller and Dawn Shepherd
discuss the origins of the weblog and its classification as a genre of writing.
At the time this article was written in 2004, the blog had rapidly ascended in
status as a platform for personal expression. Miller and Shepherd say this is a
sign that the blog is now its very own genre. And the blog’s defining
characteristic in their eyes is “the peculiar intersection of the public and
private that weblogs seem to invite.” A blog can be addressed to everyone and
also no one at the same time. In other words, the blog is a way of sharing
one’s inner thoughts with a large and “invisible audience.” This particular
characteristic of blogs is what guides Miller and Shepherd in their definition
of the blog as a genre.
Miller and
Shepherd also discuss where the blog and its name originated. At its core is
the word “log”, a form of documentation – something that can apply to a blog.
“Web” goes in front of “log” to create “weblog”, which is then shortened to
“blog”. Thus, the blog is a method of online logging, open to a wide audience.
In a way it’s similar to journals, diaries, and magazine posts. But it differs
from journals and diaries because it is open to an audience. And a blog is also
much more personal than a magazine or newspaper article. At the time this
article was written, the blog was something new and unique. That’s why Miller
and Shepherd felt the need to perform a genre analysis of it.
My question is what
role did the blog play in developing the social medias we have today? Just like
how Miller and Shepherd say the blog evolved from logs, and is a relative of
journals, diaries, etc., I believe today’s most popular social media websites
are “descendants” of the blog. Andreas Kaplin in his article “Users of the
world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media” says social
media developed because “the growing availability of high-speed Internet access
further added to the popularity of the concept” - the “concept” being blogs.
Blogs are devoted to expressing drawn out thoughts through extended posts.
Social media might be seen as an accelerated version of blogs.
Does Miller and
Shepherd’s genre analysis of blogs also apply to social media? Just like blogs,
social media is a discourse that has developed its own name and taken off. So
what does Miller and Shepherd’s classification of blogs as a genre mean for
social media as a genre?
In the article
Miller and Shepherd aim to answer the question “what rhetorical work do blogs
perform and for whom?” This is a key question in determining the genre type of
the blog. Beyond this, they look into kairos and it’s role in the creation of
the blog. Understanding the blog’s “cultural context”, the time, place, and
reasons for which it originated are central to understanding kairos. Thus,
Miller and Shepherd look to the early 90’s when mentioning of the “blog” first
came about. According to the article, the never-ending desire for truth was
what defined the culture that the blog was fostered in. It was a desire for
reality, and a mixture of private and public spheres. The blog became a
personal means of doing this. And it was through the blog that writers were
able to combine “the immediately real and the genuinely personal.” Miller and
Shepherd say the blog is thus defined by the personality of the blogger. The
genre is very dependent on the blogger’s perspective, ideas and the way they
use their blog.
Since the 90’s
when blogs really started developing, it would seem the culture of desire for
information has only advanced. Social Media is quicker and briefer form of what
the blog might be. It is a representation of a person via the Internet. It’s
not just thoughts and ideas being shared with an audience. Social Media allows
people to create online identities, communicating in real time and sharing
information in real time. The blog, though, still has a place in today’s
culture. It is a means for thoroughly communicating and sharing one’s thought.
Works Cited
Miller, Carolyn.
Shepherd, Dawn. “Blogging as a Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog.” Into
the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs.” < http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.html>
Kaplan, Andreas.
Haenlein, Michael. “Users of the world,
unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media.” <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681309001232>
To answer your question about how blogs have shaped social media, it's pretty evident that Facebook and Twitter are refined versions of interconnected public blogging. These social apps take the personal or professional musings of individual voices like a blog would, and has created a format that allows any person to view your page with ease and in relation to other peoples' pages. The blog served as a separate entity, as different blogs were clearly separate and oftentimes disjointed from others. modern social apps serves almost like a database of a collection of multiple blogs from all different rhetors. Combining the rhetorical desire for the genre of a blog with the refined and streamlined nature of social media, it's no surprise that facebook and twitter serve as a new, more powerful, and more popular version of the blog.
ReplyDeleteI think that the blog initiated a virtual community where people could freely speak their minds and pose their own opinions about specific issues, as well as promote awareness and shine light on issues that they thought people might be interested in. However, blogs tend to be more elaborate and tedious. Where as social media sparked a new form of the same concept that the blog hand started, a place where you could voice your opinions and concerns. But it is apparent that social media is a lot more popular today then blogs are. That could be due to the easiness of using your blog and the fact that is the easiest way to stay updated on the news. As you can see if you log on to Facebook or twitter the same stories circulate. So you can navigate from page to page seeing others opinions and hearing more detailed versions, to very short snippets. Lets take the recent popularity of the ice bucket challenge, which promoted awareness and raised money for ALS, as an example. This would be archived under the genre of news. Much like it would be is you were looking at a blog. However, it is a lot easier to stumble across these stories on these reinvented social media blogs because everyone’s opinions are located under one network, instead of separate websites for each blog. So I would have to agree with your statement “today’s most popular social media websites are “descendants” of the blog.”
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