01 Blogs in Media Education

I would like to pick up on a point from this week’s reading. Adrian Miles likens a blog to a journal claiming it’s a place for ‘idea’s, reflections, activities’. However the key difference is that ‘a blog is a public document, and is written with the assumption it has readers’.

In the previous semester we had to keep a journal. One of the first readings was an essay by Sari Smith, ‘Journals and Notebooks’. It describes a journal as a ‘free space’ that ‘allows an honesty allowed nowhere else’.

The reading completely contradicted the assignment. The difference between what Smith describes and my task was that my journal undoubtedly had an audience. Even if it was simply the person marking it, I knew whatever I put in my journal would eventually be read. Reagrdless of how hard I tried, I did not see this as a ‘true journal’ or an exploration of my subconscious. I was aware of my audience.

So how will I go with a blog? I don’t know the size or demographic of my audience but again, it is a public document with the potential to be read by some, few, or many.

Of course, ideally I would love to say that this is a true representation of myself but that is unrealistic. I heard a statistic that the average person is intoxicated in 60% of their photos on Facebook yet very few people are actually drunk for 60% of their lives. So is one’s online presence at all like a journal? The audience of a blog is infinite and that will no doubt effect the content I choose. Perhaps a blog is it actually a representation of how we would like to be seen?