Blogs are, depending on your viewpoint, either a democratic enabler of individual opinion or the dumping ground for every man and his dog's irrelevant banter. The truth is they are both these things, and everything in between too. Blogs have given every person with access to the Internet an outlet to make themselves heard. This is great, because now your average Joe can share his thoughts with the world in a truly empowering fashion. It's bad because as with everything, when everyone does it most of it ends up as garbage.
Journalism has felt the negative effects of blogs more than others. When everyone can be a journalist, no-one is, or more accurately, if everyone thinks they are a journalist why would they depend on traditional journalism? A term has arisen in the wake of the rise of blogging, 'blogspam'. It refers to blogs where the only concern is not journalistic integrity but page views, as the more eyeballs you can get the more money your in-page adverts will bring in. This has rapidly led to lowest-common-denominator style blogs stuffed full of referral links from other sources and low to minimal effort spent on content (many blogs are even composed by machines).
Still, hidden among the masses of cat pictures and antisemitic trolling there are some true gems. Great blogs exist for every subject imaginable, from technology enthusiasts to cross stitch. Respected industry figures and celebrities often keep their own blogs, either as promotional tools or just as outlets for their thoughts. They can be a great way to learn new things, or see another point of view, or understand the lives of those in places ravaged by war.
Blogs are incredibly useful in education too, I rely on them heavily in my own teaching. Blogs are a contemporary equivalent to journal writing that resonate a little more with students. In most practical-focused modules I teach I ask for a production and research blog to encapsulate each student's progress and understanding. I prefer them to more traditional written documents as they are more suited to an ongoing journey of discovery and they can be easily enhanced with multimedia. They wouldn't be suited to more academic subjects as they lack the necessary rigor and rigid formatting requirements.
Journalism has felt the negative effects of blogs more than others. When everyone can be a journalist, no-one is, or more accurately, if everyone thinks they are a journalist why would they depend on traditional journalism? A term has arisen in the wake of the rise of blogging, 'blogspam'. It refers to blogs where the only concern is not journalistic integrity but page views, as the more eyeballs you can get the more money your in-page adverts will bring in. This has rapidly led to lowest-common-denominator style blogs stuffed full of referral links from other sources and low to minimal effort spent on content (many blogs are even composed by machines).
Still, hidden among the masses of cat pictures and antisemitic trolling there are some true gems. Great blogs exist for every subject imaginable, from technology enthusiasts to cross stitch. Respected industry figures and celebrities often keep their own blogs, either as promotional tools or just as outlets for their thoughts. They can be a great way to learn new things, or see another point of view, or understand the lives of those in places ravaged by war.
Blogs are incredibly useful in education too, I rely on them heavily in my own teaching. Blogs are a contemporary equivalent to journal writing that resonate a little more with students. In most practical-focused modules I teach I ask for a production and research blog to encapsulate each student's progress and understanding. I prefer them to more traditional written documents as they are more suited to an ongoing journey of discovery and they can be easily enhanced with multimedia. They wouldn't be suited to more academic subjects as they lack the necessary rigor and rigid formatting requirements.
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