By Harpreet K Suree
Now you may all be a little intrigued by the title of this piece but believe you me, you shouldn’t judge a book entirely by its cover. Let me go on and divulge further in to how all this really fits into the New Media world...
Setting the scene; Blogs in my eyes open up the world to the opinions of one person or a group, who wish to sit in a “darken” room, alone, with nothing better to do but write about trivial, insignificant events or going ons that frankly, no one could give a monkey’s about. (Apologies in advance, for the use of stereotyping, dysphemistic metaphoric language and the complex linguistic phrasing of the pragmatics of the blogging world).
Blogging is an increasingly popular new media technology, whose origin has stemmed from that of traditional methods of logging and diary keeping. This method is often called upon to record feelings, chronological events, activities, meetings or interactions that are of certain significance in the writers or should we now say “blogger’s” life, at the point of writing. Clearly, the emotional factors of diary keeping, I believe will and have been transferred to blogging, but would someone really blog their inner most private and deepest thoughts to the whole wide world, sorry I meant “World Wide Web”!
Sometimes these logs can be meaningless, however on the other hand entries as we have seen in the past and in history can convey important details about historical events, which can help us to explain the reason as to why, when, how and the details about the state of mind an individual was in, whilst writing the “diary” entries.
Some people like to blog to keep others informed about particular news events, and to express their perspectives, of say... the current state of affairs, in order to elicit heated discussions with those within their online community networks. Levy has coined a term especially to describe this type of behaviour “collective intelligence”, and refer to new social structures that enable the production and circulation of knowledge within a networked society. A community within which bloggers can bounce their ideas off one another collectively to build up a diverse set of opinions which paint a bigger and more overall picture of what is really going on in the world.
Others simply blog to escape from the trials and tribulations of life, a method by which they are able to live in a world of fantasy and be someone they want to be, without being judged by others. Blogs can be kept anonymous, which can be ideal for those who do not want the rest of the blogging world to coincide with their real world. But for others blogging can be used as a method of slander, some people may think that it is acceptable to write about others in a negative way, even when it is clear to the rest of the world whom they are talking about and to intentionally?Place someone else in a bad light? Would blogger “A” then themselves, like it if another blogger “B” came along, for instance and decided that they would blog untrue, malicious and hurtful lies about blogger “A”, just as they once did to someone else?
No. The answer to this question is NO. Probably not. Maybe blogging in such a way can be justified as a way to vent feelings (okay, that’s kind of understandable), but to the whole “World Wide Web”? Is that really necessary? Is it really something a blogger should be proud of?
From my research of blogs and bloggers, I have found that sometimes, people can begin to think that they’re life; however small, however pathetic is part of an adventure. Almost as if there is “interesting” and “must read” narrative constantly flowing around them and they (the blogger), well they are at the centre of that little imaginary, synthetically produced virtual world. A blog which facilitates the narrative for the pictures the blogger has uploaded on Facebook for instance, and the dramatisation of “bog-standard” events which really have no real significance whatsoever, but do fuel and make the blogger feel like they’re in “control”/other elements of the Generation C label.
“If you want to attract a community around you, you must offer them something original and of a quality that they can react to and incorporate in their creative work” (Glocer).
In terms of transmedia storytelling, it may not be the approach one is looking for, to merely expand and create on top of existing and successful fictional world, such as that of Harry Potter and Dr Who, etc, etc. But, rather it may be an application of fictional narratives to real daily events is what the blogger is looking for, which is an idea that is currently in use and has been for many years, which can be seen through folklore storytelling. But this type of dramatisation of events is and may become quite a distasteful medium of creative writing. In which bloggers blog with the primary purpose to humiliate innocent people, who really aren’t doing anything significant or wrong for that matter, but “a sad individual” wants to “out” them for doing very normal and simple things, and to make them sound bad.
And it is at this point where the very nature of diary blogging changes, from a mundane vent of feelings and going ons to a fictionally inspired wonder world. But it’s not a complex fictional world, but rather a complex REAL world, that the blogger has ignorantly forgotten about, and even the implications for oneself and others have been forgotten, until one day that very spell is broken, and it comes back with a vengeance (yes, just like in Star Wars) and bites that person in the back.
In reality, there are consequences that one must adhere to and these can include the governance of laws: namely those of libel and defamation, which do, for the record span across the interests of the World Wide Web, and more specifically to those who wish to publish indecent or untruthful “blogs”.
The world is becoming an increasingly evil space, in which you cannot even log on to Facebook (as mentioned earlier) and find that someone has written a blog about someone else, using “code names” (which evidently makes it alright? NOT) and has publically blogged to the world their inner most hatreds for the simple things that another cannot help but do. Whilst writing in a narrative style which mimics that of a blog shown in a TV programme, really is quite pathetic, don’t you think?
Now you may all be a little intrigued by the title of this piece but believe you me, you shouldn’t judge a book entirely by its cover. Let me go on and divulge further in to how all this really fits into the New Media world...
Setting the scene; Blogs in my eyes open up the world to the opinions of one person or a group, who wish to sit in a “darken” room, alone, with nothing better to do but write about trivial, insignificant events or going ons that frankly, no one could give a monkey’s about. (Apologies in advance, for the use of stereotyping, dysphemistic metaphoric language and the complex linguistic phrasing of the pragmatics of the blogging world).
Blogging is an increasingly popular new media technology, whose origin has stemmed from that of traditional methods of logging and diary keeping. This method is often called upon to record feelings, chronological events, activities, meetings or interactions that are of certain significance in the writers or should we now say “blogger’s” life, at the point of writing. Clearly, the emotional factors of diary keeping, I believe will and have been transferred to blogging, but would someone really blog their inner most private and deepest thoughts to the whole wide world, sorry I meant “World Wide Web”!
Sometimes these logs can be meaningless, however on the other hand entries as we have seen in the past and in history can convey important details about historical events, which can help us to explain the reason as to why, when, how and the details about the state of mind an individual was in, whilst writing the “diary” entries.
Some people like to blog to keep others informed about particular news events, and to express their perspectives, of say... the current state of affairs, in order to elicit heated discussions with those within their online community networks. Levy has coined a term especially to describe this type of behaviour “collective intelligence”, and refer to new social structures that enable the production and circulation of knowledge within a networked society. A community within which bloggers can bounce their ideas off one another collectively to build up a diverse set of opinions which paint a bigger and more overall picture of what is really going on in the world.
Others simply blog to escape from the trials and tribulations of life, a method by which they are able to live in a world of fantasy and be someone they want to be, without being judged by others. Blogs can be kept anonymous, which can be ideal for those who do not want the rest of the blogging world to coincide with their real world. But for others blogging can be used as a method of slander, some people may think that it is acceptable to write about others in a negative way, even when it is clear to the rest of the world whom they are talking about and to intentionally?Place someone else in a bad light? Would blogger “A” then themselves, like it if another blogger “B” came along, for instance and decided that they would blog untrue, malicious and hurtful lies about blogger “A”, just as they once did to someone else?
No. The answer to this question is NO. Probably not. Maybe blogging in such a way can be justified as a way to vent feelings (okay, that’s kind of understandable), but to the whole “World Wide Web”? Is that really necessary? Is it really something a blogger should be proud of?
From my research of blogs and bloggers, I have found that sometimes, people can begin to think that they’re life; however small, however pathetic is part of an adventure. Almost as if there is “interesting” and “must read” narrative constantly flowing around them and they (the blogger), well they are at the centre of that little imaginary, synthetically produced virtual world. A blog which facilitates the narrative for the pictures the blogger has uploaded on Facebook for instance, and the dramatisation of “bog-standard” events which really have no real significance whatsoever, but do fuel and make the blogger feel like they’re in “control”/other elements of the Generation C label.
“If you want to attract a community around you, you must offer them something original and of a quality that they can react to and incorporate in their creative work” (Glocer).
In terms of transmedia storytelling, it may not be the approach one is looking for, to merely expand and create on top of existing and successful fictional world, such as that of Harry Potter and Dr Who, etc, etc. But, rather it may be an application of fictional narratives to real daily events is what the blogger is looking for, which is an idea that is currently in use and has been for many years, which can be seen through folklore storytelling. But this type of dramatisation of events is and may become quite a distasteful medium of creative writing. In which bloggers blog with the primary purpose to humiliate innocent people, who really aren’t doing anything significant or wrong for that matter, but “a sad individual” wants to “out” them for doing very normal and simple things, and to make them sound bad.
And it is at this point where the very nature of diary blogging changes, from a mundane vent of feelings and going ons to a fictionally inspired wonder world. But it’s not a complex fictional world, but rather a complex REAL world, that the blogger has ignorantly forgotten about, and even the implications for oneself and others have been forgotten, until one day that very spell is broken, and it comes back with a vengeance (yes, just like in Star Wars) and bites that person in the back.
In reality, there are consequences that one must adhere to and these can include the governance of laws: namely those of libel and defamation, which do, for the record span across the interests of the World Wide Web, and more specifically to those who wish to publish indecent or untruthful “blogs”.
The online world has really become just as twisted as that of the real world and of print media, in which innocent and unsuspecting people are being blogged about. Recently in the news an English footballer Steven Gerrard was rumoured ONLINE (to be completely accurate) to have impregnated a 16year old, which is not true, but rather the attempts and “Scandal-mongering of internet gossips as a shameful practice”.
The world is becoming an increasingly evil space, in which you cannot even log on to Facebook (as mentioned earlier) and find that someone has written a blog about someone else, using “code names” (which evidently makes it alright? NOT) and has publically blogged to the world their inner most hatreds for the simple things that another cannot help but do. Whilst writing in a narrative style which mimics that of a blog shown in a TV programme, really is quite pathetic, don’t you think?
So yes its true, anyone can write a story, real or fictional, our minds will read it and subvert it into something else because that’s the way they’re programmed to work. But stories of the everyday and of everyday people can have dire consequences, when they start to mess with the reputations and livelihoods of others.
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