Image Source: Harvard
According to Jurgen Habermas (cited in Chalkley et al. 2012,
p. 22) ideal speech is the opportunity to hold and voice opinion or to engage
in ‘discourse’ whereby all in the public sphere have the ability to raise
matters according to the ideal, that what they say is true and honest and that
they can confirm their claims.
The public sphere refers
to the space where people, in this case bloggers, come together to express
shared interests and ideas and to discuss matters that interest them. The blogosphere,
in a sense, acts as an independent public sphere as people who have similar
interests find other people with who they share their ideas and interests with.
The blogosphere can act as an independent and impartial
public sphere, having said that, the blogosphere is made up of millions of
different topics and subjects. Micro-blogging sites such as Twitter and Instagram allow bloggers to connect through
hashtags which enables an instant connection. Initially, the hashtag began on
Twitter, but the success of the sharing device that connects you to the same
subject has meant that it is now common in most blogs, and even social
networking sites such as Facebook.
Enabling people to connect and communicate on a global scale
through blogging has meant that traditional forms of communication are becoming
less frequented, as the internet becomes more and more popular.
The increased use of blogging to communicate has created
citizen journalism, which has supported and enabled bloggers to spread their
news across the world.
Hirst (2011, pg. 17) explains that now that almost everyone
can upload their own versions of the ‘news’ to the Internet, the function of
journalism is to act as an intelligent sifter of the billions of bytes supplied
by amateurs.
References:
Chalkley, T, Brown, A, Cinque, T, Warren, B, Hobbs, M &
Finn M 2012, Communication, New Media and
Everyday Life, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Vic.
Hirst, M. 2011, ‘News
2.0: Can Journalism Survive the Internet”, Allen and Unwin, NSW, Australia.
Image1: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/2009/Mapping_the_Arabic_Blogosphere/Arabic_blogosphere_map
Emily, I enjoyed your description of microblogging and your post put in perspective just how large the scope of the ‘blogosphere’ is and how it will continue to grow with rapid increase in popularity. I agree will your statement that the blogosphere provides people with “the opportunity to hold and voice opinion or to engage in ‘discourse’ whereby all in the public sphere have the ability to raise matters” and it certainly is a great tool for giving a voice to those who might never have had one. It does raise the question however, with such an overwhelming amount of blogs on a range of topics, is this tool of equal voice just counterproductive? It gives everyone a voice, but because everyone has a voice they are all competing to be heard? Does it just reaffirm the division between developed and developing countries that some may have the knowledge and tools to make their blog appear first in a search engine and others do not?
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ReplyDeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteYour explanation of the blogosphere is great in understanding its scope! Your example of how the blogosphere promotes and encourages discourse is great, as it shows that the expansion of the public sphere is allowing for like-minded individuals to converse and communicate globally. Your post was well written, with the only minor thing i could say is that you repeated a point in 2 consecutive paragraphs and didn't really cover the uberveillance topic as it was stated in your title. Your images were well suited to your text, but expanding on particularly the first picture could really emphasise its relevance to those who don't understand what it represents. Overall though, well written and insightful!
Thanks!
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