DIGC101 reflective essay
The internet is a valuable platform which has and will continue to alter the nature of communication. It facilitates interaction between many individuals and offers a realm of endless opportunities for online identities to be presented. The past four weeks of studying the subject New Media Communication and constructing an online identity has been a significant learning experience. The productive learning environment has encouraged the students to consider their own online presence and the impact of current online personas. Various forms of media were introduced to facilitate profound interaction within the online world. Critical analysis was given to the internet as a new media communication hub that facilitates interpersonal communication on another level. The emergence of the blogosphere, as well as social networking websites has been examined in order to completely understand the collective intelligence of Web 2.0.
The first stage of using and experiencing the web as a communication form was a good introduction which allowed students to reflect on ideas for an online presence. The initial reaction to the first lab/seminar was very similar to the teaching methods utilised by Welsch (2009) in his article ‘Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance’. This article is very relevant to the course as it confronts the issue that many students face – “[A struggle] to find meaning and significance in their education” (p2). Welsh states that students do not feel compelled to learn and contemporary teaching methods do not provide an interactive learning environment. The interactivity of the lab/seminar encouraged students to complete the work with enthusiasm. There was no uniformity or strict authority which led to student immersion and knowledge diffusion (p2). Thus, I began to critically think about ideas for my online persona and decided to choose a professional identity. Although the knowledge and skill to create a high standard web page have not been acquired yet, practice and persistence will eventuate into success.
The professional identity chosen to employ was of a citizen journalist, as this interrelates with another subject I am currently undertaking. Initially there was no direct angle to be taken with the blog, but through experimentation with different layouts and blog ideas I found myself in the right direction. At first I wanted to reflect and commentate on local, national and international news, but this would regurgitate journalists. Thus, focus was directed towards the local community whilst incorporating a mixture of news reflections and interviews. The name chosen is ‘Newspie’ which is a pun that signifies a pie of news stories, and a spy on the news. Doorns (et. al. 2007, p147) believes the blogosphere is not uniform and within it abides a unique combination of identities. Many bloggers, especially teenagers, present themselves in a different form to their identities in the real world. The stereotypes associated with Newspie are other news bloggers, such as Sydney Morning Herald Blogs. However, the uniqueness of this identity is that it has a mixture of researched stories and news reflections. Newspie was not created in the reflection of a specific gender, because it is not a blog about my personal life; it is a professional online identity that focuses on individuals within the community.
Boulos et. al. (2006) define the word ‘blog’ as an abbreviation of the words ‘web log’ and further note the purpose of a blog which is to provide a “multimedia environment” enriched with various sources. Accordingly, other forms of media are incorporated onto the blog to create this diverse and interactive environment. A Youtube channel was created to host videos; however, this was limited to videos of less than 10 minutes in length, which was a hindrance.
According to Madden et. al. (2006, p1) the essential purpose of Web 2.0 is to allow a “collective intelligence” to contribute to a knowledge community. This prompted me to think about my online identity and I believe the most important element to include is interactivity. Ways that have facilitated interaction on the created blog is by encouraging users to communicate by either commenting on the blog, or sending an email to michelle.newspie@gmail.com – an email address created specifically for the web page. The collective intelligence was demonstrated through hyperlinks in the blog posts to give the readers further information, and a poll to encourage readers to voice their opinion. Madden et. al. (p 2) makes another good point about Web 2.0 applications by saying that they replace the traditional hierarchy of institutional power. Wikis have facilitated equal participation in a realm where many people can voice their opinion. The blog was not created to be a monologue, and it was important to voice one’s own opinion, however, only to a small extent, because it is important to have a collaboration of ideas.
Interpersonal communication is a fundamental element in the blogosphere and is mediated through blog posts, videos, images and audio. The blogging platform used to host Newspie is Wordpress which has various widgets and allows users to upload images and videos onto their blog. The layout and theme of Newspie was specifically designed to create a user-friendly, bright and simple web page. New media technologies encompass a multilogue of communication which is why it was essential to reflect the meaning and purpose of Newspie in its image. One of the most crucial things to consider when creating an online identity is the readership – that is, who is reading your blog (Warschauer et. al. 2007, p8). One must not assume that their intended audience will be the only readers of their posts, so it is important to be mindful of information that is displayed. Personal information is not displayed on Newspie due to privacy reasons, whilst information and pictures from other sources are referenced to avoid plagiarism. However, to make the blog posts easily searchable to interested readers, relevant tags were used. Tagging – otherwise known as “folksonomy” (p8) is crucial in the Web 2.0 experience because with so many different types of blogs, it is often difficult to find the desired post. To heighten this folksonomy, distinct categories were created for Newspie’s blog posts, such as ‘local, national, international and in my opinion’.
The importance of blogging is reflected through the impact that many online identities exert on the Web 2.0 community. Danah Boyd is an example of an online identity who has a large following across multiple mediums on the internet. It was interesting to examine her blog entitled apophenia (2009) which discusses technology and online communication. Danah makes a valid point when she rejects the technologically deterministic argument in her blog (2009) because, although a requirement for the subject DIGC101 is to create an online identity, it is individually shaped. The internet is the medium that Newspie is hosted on, and the blog posts are completely unique to the author of the web page. Lasica (2003, p70) argues that blogging is essential in the journalism industry because a collective intelligence is essential for a multi-sided approach. It is up to individuals to communicate and share news with each other, such as Boyd does, in order to create a better understanding of the world. Furthermore, Lasica (2003, p71) believes that we should not see weblogs as an isolated class, rather as part of a “network of ideas”. Given the time this article was written, society has come a long way. Six years later and news blogging is increasingly popular with newspapers such as The Sydney Morning Herald hosting various online bloggers, as well as constantly updated news online. Lasica believes blogs add a personalised element to journalism which uncovers niche stories that are not discussed in the media (p72). For example, Newspie ran an interview with a university student; this may not be of interest to many people but can nonetheless be viewed with the same ease as news websites. Blogging adds a humanistic approach to news as they allow readers to hear the opinions of individuals and not just corporations.
The blogosphere is a diverse environment that is widely participated in, despite the fact that the majority of blogs are not-for-profit and rarely viewed. According to Drezner et. al. (2004, p7) the difference between blogs and traditional media is that blogs “rely” on hyperlinks. Links between blogs are often in the form of a blogroll and this essentially defines each bloggers interests. Creating a blogroll is simple and it is a good way to receive another blog’s daily feed. Drezner et. al. Furthermore describes links and page views as the “currency” of the blogging world, because one posts a blog hoping that people will take interest in their presented work. Thus, the more links to and on a blog page equals a higher chance of the blog being seen. Although blogging is the ultimate mechanism for individuals to voice their opinions, it is unlikely to affect the political sphere, due to limited resources and its pro bono nature (p19).
In conclusion, using and experiencing the web as a communication form has been an interesting, interactive learning process. The virtual world is emerging as an important part of our lives so it is beneficial to position oneself online in the participatory culture of Web 2.0. Older forms of media in Web 1.0 are transforming into a multilogue of interaction through text, video, audio, images, hyperlinks, comments, tagging and so forth. Interpersonal communication has been transformed and using the internet to present my identity on Newspie is an excellent opportunity to showcase my passions to the world.
Bibliography
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