The very act of reaching out, or communicating with another individual, whether across the table in a room or across the globe through the Interact, involves a high degree of reponsibility. That is, we are responsible for the content, style and import and partly, for the possible interpretations, of the message/text which we send out. Since blogging these days has attained the level of a nanopublishing revolution, and the process of "filtering" enables you to offer access to potentially infinite sources of information or "knowledge", it is important not only to retain our credibility as blog writers, but also use the medium of language responsibly (I'm not sure if it's possible to blog in any language other than English as of this moment). That is where the issue of rhetoric in blogging comes in.
We post blogs for various purposes: share a personal experience, tell a story or float a political agenda. It could be for creative writing, technical writing, historical documentation, children's reading, or just to express a thought or reflect on something (a movie, a news event or a work of art). It could also be for the purpose of selling a consumer item, and that is where we step into the fast evolving domain of Weblog advertizing. Using photographs to illustrate/back up one's blog is part of rhetoric too.
Since, what's posted on the Weblog is open and accesible to millions around the world, including children sometimes, it is imperative to choose our words and visuals reponsibly. This involves blogging ethics. When posting an original work, a blogger is expected to choose her/his writing style to best suit the purpose, but in the event of drawing from other people's works, (s)he is expected to be honest and transparent about it. While pithy words, smart headlines, puns (as long as they don't have dirty connotations), contemporary jargon and tools of rhetoric such as metaphors, antithesis and other figures of speech are welcome, terms and phrases that may be offensive to groups or communities or unsuitable for children are not. That is, a blogger needs to maintain a modicum of decency. In our comments on other people's writing or on national and international issues, we are not expected to be nasty and when we use everyday parlance, we should know where to draw the line.
Weblogs are "link-driven" as opposed to the "ink-driven" pages of a conventional book but still, we have the software available to make words stand out by using the boldface or italicizing them. All this is just a matter of a mouse-click and contributes to visual rhetric.
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6 comments:
I like your comment about blogs being link-driven rather than ink-driven. I think that the ability to send readers out to other sources of information so easily is definitely a key part of this genre and communication evolution.
I was also interested in your comment about blogging being an English language thing only. It's actually been a communication medium used in places like China where governments are trying to repress information. Although I know little about this movement beyond what has been reported in the media, I believe that blogging is being utilized globally to help outsiders know about and understand all kinds of issues on a personal (and political) level.
Your comments about the responsibility of our interactions are right on. That is something that really surprised me about blogging, that they expect you to be responsible in what you right. That probably one of the things that made me look at blogging differently. I had a very negative assumption of what blogging was, but with what we have read, I might actually consider continuing this beyond the classroom.
I can show you in class how to do the link. Above the box that you type your post into there is an icon for link. You highlight the word(s) you want to include a link on and then click on the link icon and put in the web address. If you still have questions let me know on Monday and I can show you.
I was really struck by your focus on ethics in blogging. Do you think this is a carry-over from journalism?
I am wondering if ethical writing looks and acts differently in blogs than other "ink-driven" spaces. It gets back to kairos - is their a different standard for "fitting" approaches and being appropriate in blogging communities than other places? It seems that the community certainly puts a premium on honesty and transparency, but sarcasm and the entertaining albeit raunchy comments also seem to go over well.
Jenny,
When you say that blogging "is being utilized globally to help outsiders know about and understand" issues, it occurs to me that at the same time, by default, English is becoming the standard global language, much more than ever before. But with the rapid advancement of technology, I wonder how long it will take beofore other languages are available for the purpose of blogging.
Moushumi
Jen,
I'm not sure if my focus on "ethics" came subconsciously from years of journalistic writing (print). Yes, I suppose it has been ingrained in me, since there was no way a report would be published in a mainstream newspaper if I did not maintain journalistic decorum (alternative papers and tabloids are less stringent in such matters, but even then, they need to be careful to avoid censorship). No, we are not prudes, but we do find ways to work around certain "unacceptable" terms (while still remaining honest in our reporting). In fact, these days, using such items as "*" have become standard practice when using raw quotes.
Moushumi
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