Blog 1

Hey hey.  It’s me, I can't believe it I'm blogging. I never thought I would be blogging but here I am and I must admit that I am a little bit excited about my blog.  You must understand I have a Facebook page but haven't updated nor checked for about 3 months.

But let’s focus on my first topic, and it was a bit of a challenge to think of a topic but after much deliberation I have decided to discuss if blogging is in fact a form of media that should be taken seriously?  Since a blog to my understanding is an opinion (I.e. I missed the class on blogging so I am just going by experience) I am still undecided about whether a blog can be a source of viable news.  

Yes we were taught that it’s a form of citizen media and it is very important and has become one of the most popular forms of communication, so much so that for a majority of local companies Facebook and Twitter are just as important for advertising products as using the newspapers or making a Television Ad.  Yes blogging is here to stay and now has become a major part of everyday life.

In fact you would be hard pressed to find a main stream website that doesn't have a blog option.  And yes there are many advantages to blogging.  I guess my concern is that most of the blog sites I go into are more opinion that fact and usually I just need the facts not your thoughts.  I guess that's what I don't like about blog sites.  Too much opinion and not enough fact.  

But I'm giving you my opinion right now, I guess it’s not the fact that we have opinions its more so that we want our opinion to be read and we want to be noticed.  I think that's the issue.  Even my beloved BBC news and Aljazerra sources a majority of content from blogs.  They even go as far as to say that blogs are the new source of news tips.  With such weight being thrown behind blogs you simply can't deny the influence blogging has had on mainstream media. 

I guess my hesitation for embracing all thing blog is a fear that the line between information provider and information receiver has been somewhat blurred as of late and as I get older I get more traditional.  While researching for my first blog post I came across this article from the BBC about blogging, be mindful the article was from 2005, which seemed like a million years ago and this line really struck me "With this has come a shift in the balance of power between consumer and provider, whether it be of content, products or services....." and that in my mind really struck a chord in terms how I perceive blogging.  I just find it difficult to take blogging seriously.  I quote a line from the 2011 movie Contagion starring Laurence Fishborne (AKA Morpheus).  

The movie is about some disease that sweeps through the world killing millions with Jude Law using his blog as a means of getting information out to the public after the military steps in and shuts down mainstream media.  The scene I refer to is when Jude Law is chasing after scientist trying to get a quote saying “the people in the blogger sphere have a right to know? To which the scientist replied “blogging is not media it is rubbish with punctuation...” or something like that, and I tend to agree when I read most blog sites in the sense that a lot of blogs don’t appeal to me, but that’s the beauty of the blog,  its meant to convey your thoughts and feelings.

As I finish up my first ever blog, my mind is slowly (I can hear the gears clicking) moving towards taking up blogging and not ignoring it.  I mean we all evolve and like to learn new things and I think I have.  When our Professor gave this assignment I was not too enthusiastic.  You may have met him, He is the only European that ears shorts with a tucked in shirt on campus.  Yes, it’s Professor Edge, a Canadian who has opened up my mind since arriving last year.  A message to you Professor, I understand a few of my colleagues have blogged on the grub sheet and mentioned they don’t like you, well I still haven’t read the grub sheet and most likely won’t.  Why, maybe because I don’t have a problem with “The Edge” and kind of enjoy his classes, although I do have one piece of advice for you, can we cut the black and white videos out, I always enjoyed colour.