Thanks to early readers--and why I started this blog
First of all, thanks to those who read and responded to my blog yesterday. Special thanks go to Hope of Humor Hangout for sending readers of her blog my way.
Unfortunately, I am a serious and earnest person rather than a witty and humorous one, so if you're expecting witty posts--like Hope's recent post on driving (which I thought was great) you'll have to go--well, you'll have to go to Humor Hangout.
I thought I would follow up my first post by explaining why I started The Writing Way. It may be helpful for readers to know that I'm a professor at Oregon State University. My area is rhetoric and writing studies. This means basically that I study writing and the rhetorical tradition and also teach future teachers of writing.
I've got lots of research interests, from the rhetorical tradition (think Aristotle, Plato and Quintillian as early founders of this tradition) to contemporary feminist and critical theory (did I just lose all my readers here?) to collaborative writing. Recently, I've become fascinated with the changes that online technologies like blogging are bringing to contemporary communication. Do blogs and Amazon.com customer reviews (for instance) represent a utopian overturning of what we academics refer to as cultural and political hegemony? (Basically this means the old guard who control things and determine who's an expert and thus gets to publish his/her writing and who isn't.) Or do they represent a dystopian vision of the future?
In this regard, I'm fascinated by Amazon.com reviewers. They represent a powerful challenge to a tradition of expert reviewers that's held sway for several centuries. In that sense, they seem exciting and vital--democratizing. But you could also view them as being in effect coopted by Amazon's business structure and existing primarily to further its profitmaking.
Hmmm. I've written enough--probably for a blog too much. If anyone reads this and wants to post a comment, here are some questions I'd love to have your thoughts on:
--Why do you blog?
--Why do you read others' blogs?
--What do you think of Amazon.com customer reviews? How much credibility to you give them?
That's it for now. Again, thanks to those hardy souls who visited my blog yesterday.
posted by Lisa Ede @ 11:12 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Lisa:
We like you even if you are a professor.
I blog because I plan to make my fortune by doing so. Pretty basic. Anyone else?
Hope
Hi, Lisa! Unlike Hope, I don't have any short simple answers to your questions, so I will be back when I have more than a minute to write. Just wanted to say hello, and thank you for your comments! Take care!
I guess that ramblin' likes long, convoluted answers.
Hope
Why do I blog: In the beginning, the purpose was to have a place for family and friends to visit, to ramble on about everything or nothing at all, a place to vent if need be, to share news, jokes, pictures, participate in memes, and to meet people with similar interests. But, after a while, I realized I was also writing for me. So many entries were written while I was either furious or depressed. But, I would read what I wrote and view it with an entirely different perspective. Even now, I'll look at older entries and laugh at something that had me so upset months or years ago.
Why do I read others' blogs? At first, I only read blogs of people I knew personally. But through comments and e-mails, I've been introduced to numerous other bloggers. I tend to prefer personal diary type blogs, but after joining blog explosion, I've also become interested in humurous type blogs and informative type blogs. The personal diary type are like reading a book that never ends.
What do I think of Amazon.com customer reviews? How much credibility to I give them? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so customerr reviews are useful as long as they explain why they felt the way they did. I would give customer reviews more credibility than a manufacturer review.
I write a blog to feature my wonderful poetry and the poetry of other wonderful poets of times past (sed?)....so I write to write, and write on as I do. I also like putting my sketches out there, so they might get looked at, and at least my friends can log in and view them.
Blogs are great and blogger is much easier to use than geocities, which I used previously. It is also nice to see this corvallis blogger thing, which is quite nicely designed, if I do say so, and I like the photo feature too. I registered my blog and it should be showing up after the guy running this thing reviews it (is that the process?)....
I wish I was a fancy-pants professor. Oh well...
The internet, amazon reviews, blogs, are great for getting unfiltered information out there, which is why I love it. If something is good, people can get access. If it is offering a real viewpoint, it can be read without screening.
The idea that blogs are going to somehow overturn the real media is ridiculous, however. The best bloggers will just turn into real journalists, because they want to get paid just like everybody else. Also, news reporting requires actual reporters out in the field, and serious journalism requires a lot of fact-checking and upholding of standards, so while there is a very important place for bloggers airing their views, introducing ideas that maybe the mainstream media isn't going to fool with immediately.., airing viewpoints and various nonfiction and fiction writing that hasn't been seen, it isn't going to bankrupt the new york times any time soon.
A fellow corvallis blogger,
chris farrell
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