Blogging and broadcast media are both popular types of communication but the differences are in the details of the content.
I’ve already been blogging for about a year now, mainly just writing down things I thought were interesting and trying to relate them to photos I have taken. I enrolled at UT Dallas with the intent of getting the Emerging Media and Communications degree. I’m taking Writing for New Media with Professor Andrew Famiglietti. He has asked us to read two different articles about blogging. The first one was an intro to Say Everything by Scott Rosenberg. The other one was Broadcast Institutions, Community Values by Clay Shirky.
Scott Rosenberg’s Say Everything opened my eyes to the history of blogging and its impact on people. Honestly, as blogging became more and more popular I just ignored it. I thought of it as something for bored people with no real friends. I was wrong of course. The idea of how blogging records the daily lives of people intrigued me. In 2011 I probably spent more time reading blogs than anything else, it’s been interesting and fun learning from so many people. The blogs I have read have had a profound effect on me and how I perceive the world. Blogging hasn’t just opened doors; it has laid new paths that have never existed before.
Blogging Versus Broadcast Media
Both of those articles make comparisons between broadcast media and blogging. They say one of the primary differences between them is that broadcast has an audience and blogging is more of a community. The differences between the two for me are a lot more than that. It’s like you can hire a tour guide to show you around a new city or you can meet local people and allow them to show you a small slice of the city, which would include their life. You can get a broad overview perspective of the city or an up-close intimate experience of the city.
They are similar in the way they both can teach a person more about a city. In blogging and broadcasting, they are both means of outputting information and that is where the similarities end. A tour guide doesn’t take you to their house anymore a news anchor will mention how a news story will affect him and his family. Locals usually enjoy taking visitors to their homes and introducing them to their friends and family and bloggers enjoy talking about how different events affect them.
I see both as very important because broadcast media helps you see the large picture without spending much time on minute details. Depending on the story, we may not be interested in knowing all the details. This is where blogging comes in. Blogging allows us to see and read the tiny details and stories within stories. They, at times, dig deeper into topics that interest us. They can provide very personal perspectives on a more relatable topic.