After reading the selections from Blogging for Dummies, I feel compelled to state for the benefit of Las Cruces Public Schools, which claims (to) the (couldn't figure out how to make strike-throughs) right to monitor my computer activity, that I am blogging as a requirement of an NMSU class, Media Theory English 543.
Okay, what struck me the most from these readings were the expectations that bloggers will display ethos and support their arguments stylistically with a sense of humor. In terms of ethos, I was surprised how very like the unofficial journalistic code of ethics are the expectations of blogging ethos. I say unofficial because journalists do not swear to anything but are loosely expected to adhere to tenets of fairness, truth, accuracy, impartiality. Just as journalists rely on attribution to avoid getting into legal trouble, bloggers are expected to cite their sources through links, real or metaphorical, in order to avoid unethical appropriation of others' work. Unlike journalists, though, bloggers are expected to correct their errors in such a way that rectifies the error and demonstrates and preserves the trail of the error in the same "space" that it occurred. Print journalists "clarify" their misstatements in buried spaces on inside pages. Another difference between journalism and blogging is the amount of factual self-policing that bloggers do. In my experience as a print journalist, news articles were reviewed for conventions (spelling and grammar) and "journalistic style" (summary lead, continuity, attribution etc.) but rarely for accuracy.
The blogging glossary best demonstrated a blogging sense of humor -- wry, mocking, witty and well-informed. And I never would have guessed that the blogosphere has created an entire "new" or hybridized (such as "blogorrhea") language of its own.
Blog mates, can you explain to me what an RSS is? How does one "syndicate" WEB content?
Educational Gaming
15 years ago
4 comments:
Judy-
That is such a great correlation you are drawing between journalism and blogging. It makes sense, I suppose, since so many bloggers began as news junkies. It seems that blogging is rarely touted for accuracy or honesty at this point though. I think that's unfair.
Here's a link that might be helpful when thinking about RSS feeds.
http://www.press-feed.com/howitworks/rss_tutorial.php#whatarewebfeeds
It's sort of like personalizing your newspaper - let's you access and privilege the things that interest you most.
jen
Wow, your opening comment/disclaimer was surprising to me, but making it makes a lot of sense for you. Big brother is everywhere.
Like Jen, I am interested in the connections and differences between a journalistic code of ethics (or practices) and that of bloggers. The approach to rectifying errors was also particularly interesting as this is not done so directly in journalism.
Here are a couple of links to help explain RSS:
What is RSS,
RSS in Plain English
I dig your point about correcting misstatements in newspapers vs. blogs. It's kind of cool that the error becomes part of the "story" of the blog entry--it tells you part of its own history.
Judy,
you came on mentioning many interesting points in your response. As for journalism, I agree that blogging has offered journalists a great chance to publish their articles without filtering them.I think the act of filtering articles is the pain every journalist has in any country, so in this sense blogging community offers democracy for everyone. It reminds me of Plato's world!
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