Tracking, Shifting, Framing

On Monday, our exploration of blogs and the culture surrounding them will begin in earnest. To introduce the cultural piece, we'll discuss a 30-minute video presentation by Richard E. Miller and Paul Hammond, scholars of writing and composition who have collaborated in trying to "imagine what composing will look like once the destination ceases to be paper and becomes the screen." Their concept of "learning in public" is a useful way to think about the work we will be doing throughout the semester. Jay Rosen's "The People Formerly Known as the Audience" is a blog post from 2006 that succinctly but cogently articulates some of the power shifts that have accompanied media shift in the age of the Web and the laptop. Rosen is a journalism professor at NYU. He describes blogs as "little First Amendment machines." Think about that phrase and its rich implications as you begin to imagine what your blog will be and what you will aim to do with it.

Also, in preparation for our discussion, do some wandering around the blogosphere. Leave links in comments to blogs you especially enjoy. Check out some of The Bygone Bureau's "Best New Blogs of 2011." Or Time magazine's "Best Blogs of 2011." Or Saveur magazine's "2011 Best Food Blog Awards." There's even a list of "Top 200 Church Blogs." Whatever type of blog you are interested in, if you Google the phrase "best ___ blog," you will get results.

As you explore, take note of the distinctive features of blogs and how different blogs incorporate them. You will be doing a lot of skimming, but pause and do some close reading, too, so that you can begin to get a sense of what kind of writing works in the blogosphere. Our judgments here will be very subjective, but the point is to try to get a handle on the style and rhetoric of blogs.

It's a great big Internet. Go forth and explore it!

(Photo Credit: Kathy Mackey, Los Angeles, California, known as auntie k on her photo website http://flickr.com/photos/auntikhaki/ [via].)