Thank you fellow KCB201'ers!

After having a quick read through of some of my fellow KCB201’ers blogs, it got me thinking about this creative expression we call “blogging.” I was instructed to write an assignment with a consistent amount of blogs entries, on a topic of my interest. What really is a topic of interest in my case? I am a second year Media and Communication student, and no, before you ask, I am not doing a double degree like every other person at this university seems to be doing. I unfortunately have yet to really decide what I want to do in life. I know it lies in this “media field” but that is all I really can scale it down to at the moment.


So here I am, onto my second year of university, and asked to write some blogs on my topic of interests. Well so far, I have endured countless hours of television, music, print media, computer (not to mention Photoshop), media, economies, communications, speaking, and journalism studies. And have I enjoyed it? Let’s be honest...Not every moment of it.



The term, blog, has been referred to as “being initiated by Barger in 1997, as a log of the web or weblog. In its simplest form it is a website with dated entries, presented in reverse chronological order and published on the Internet.” (Paquet qtd in. Bartlett-Bragg, 2003). Paquet lists five features that a representative blog exhibits: “personal editorship; a hyperlinked posting structure; frequent updates; free public access to the content via the Internet; and archived postings” (Bartlett-Bragg, 2003). After looking at these features a representative blog must have, I begin to ponder on how to improve my blog. What is it that I can talk about? Topics such as produsage, citizen journalism, open source software, DIY, collaboration, networked people and online communities pop into my head as I brainstorm an idea for my next blog entry. But I have written about nearly all of these so far, and I am struggling for ideas about how to then go that step further and relate these to my personal interests.


Before this assignment, I always considered blogging as quite a waste of time; a forum for people to complain about issues in society. I was wrong. I now am slowly becoming aware of what blogging can entail and why it really is important to just get out there and do it. After reading the blog of a very faithful and academic hero, Henry Jenkins, I found comfort in this unfamiliarity of blogging. “The crucial point is that running a blog is a commitment, and has to be understood as part of a larger set of professional obligations. When I first began blogging as an academic, I sought advice from other bloggers” (Jenkins, 2008).


There I have it, it seems I am not the only one having troubles with blogging. If the infamous Henry Jenkins once sought help from bloggers, then I can now feel comfort in what I am hoping to achieve. “Media studies as a discipline has been quick to embrace the potentials of new-media platforms as channels for sharing our research and scholarship. A growing number of junior and senior faculty members in our field are becoming bloggers” (Jenkins, 2008). Yes...Henry, we are becoming bloggers...at least now I am after reaching out to my fellow KCB201’ers and finally trimming down this term called blogging.


References

Bartlett-Bragg, A. (2003). Blogging to Learn. http://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/edition04/pdf/Blogging_to_Learn.pdf (accessed 12 May, 2008).

Jenkins, H. (2008). Why Academics Should Blog. http://henryjenkins.org/2008/04/why_academics_should_blog.html (accessed 13 May, 2008).