Wednesday, January 25, 2006
To Blog or Not to Blog?
In response to Michael Berube's article "Blogging Back At The Right," I feel that the use of weblogs has the potential to do more harm than good because other sites can pick and choose any element of your writing to comment about without the repercussion of an editor or a censor. The vulgarity and blatant disregard for proper attribution that has occurred over the recent years discourages me greatly from having a website.
As evident by Berube's stories of how his writings were misinterpreted, one could receive a harsh backlash as a result of poor communication with readers or because of another blogger who sharply disagrees with your views. Writing for personal enjoyment is one thing. To express yourself with a website has the potential to be something fun and enjoyable, but to convey opinions or to respond to other's opinions can lead to a world of trouble.
The advantages of publicly commenting on issues is the ability to quickly respond to events that occur. One can begin typing and publishing as soon as the information is received. Another advantage is the ability to edit and quickly retract false information or mistakes. Unlike a newspaper which would have to wait an entire day, one could retract or apologize within minutes of publishing wrong information.
A disadvantage is that the competition to have the first story published could lead to a rushed publication which more than likely will have mistakes. The authors may not take enough time to properly fact check or spell check which could cause confusion or an unreadable work. A newspaper will have editors and fact checkers. Even though it may take longer to publish, their work will be more error-proof.
As evident by Berube's stories of how his writings were misinterpreted, one could receive a harsh backlash as a result of poor communication with readers or because of another blogger who sharply disagrees with your views. Writing for personal enjoyment is one thing. To express yourself with a website has the potential to be something fun and enjoyable, but to convey opinions or to respond to other's opinions can lead to a world of trouble.
The advantages of publicly commenting on issues is the ability to quickly respond to events that occur. One can begin typing and publishing as soon as the information is received. Another advantage is the ability to edit and quickly retract false information or mistakes. Unlike a newspaper which would have to wait an entire day, one could retract or apologize within minutes of publishing wrong information.
A disadvantage is that the competition to have the first story published could lead to a rushed publication which more than likely will have mistakes. The authors may not take enough time to properly fact check or spell check which could cause confusion or an unreadable work. A newspaper will have editors and fact checkers. Even though it may take longer to publish, their work will be more error-proof.
