Choices
February 14, 2006My direction has changed already!
Relative to the quote,’Weblogs are densely interlinked. This anchors blogs in the public arena, as part of a communal discourse” (Mortensen & Walker p 259), I initially wanted to discuss a variety of blogs styles (professional, academic or personal), showing how writing style and visual representation (colour, format, images, video) in used in different contexts.
However, randomness, I prefer serendipity, plays a big part in Web research. While exploring several blogs, I read a post that relates intrinsically to the area I want to explore – ‘fragments and the flight of thought’, and resonants in my own recent experience in the ‘physical’ world.
What sparked my interest, was the candid ‘confession’ from a blogger, Adrian Miles (Vlog 3.0) and the ‘cross-blogger’ comments his post generated. Adrian writes from the same University as myself – he as an academic, while I’m an undergraduate student – both linked by the same school. I also attended the First Person: International Digital Storytelling Conference referred to in Adrian’s blog and wrote about it in my ‘other blog’ (nope – not giving that one away just yet!). I’m part of this particular ‘communal discourse’ and, in this blog, an observer of it.
Adrian’s ‘spontaneous writing’ is an integral part of blog culture. It’s immediate, personal publication, that’s in stark contrast to the historicised, immutable form of print media.
I aim to make a case study of this conference conversation: tracing the academic weblog tendrils that spread out into ‘communal discourse’. ‘A paragraph is enough and there is no more needed’ (Mortensen and Walker 259), to set off on a different journey. Am I Sancho Panza following someone’s wild imaginings or Don Qiuxote himself, involved in a noble quest?
- Blogging is about interconnectedness
- The media landscape is under renovation
- the relationship between scholar and audience is mutating
Let’s see what’s being said…
