How do we imagine our audience when we blog? Are we just talking to ourselves? Are we talking to the world? Maybe it’s just to our friends and family? Into the Blogosphere, authored by Graham Lampa, discusses a few ways we might see our community and what kind of impact blogging has to media.
We each have our own imagined audience or communities. These audiences are our personal blogospheres. Ranging in size from only ourselves to the entire world, our blogospheres help fuel our desire to blog.
To better understand the blogospheres of classmates, we had a discussion in class. During the discussion, we were presented with several pictures, representing who we fell will see our posts. One picture depicted a major city, always busy and visited by millions. Another showed a lonely house in the middle of a field, a major city barely visible in the far distance. Still another displayed a suburban neighborhood, where (presumably) a close knit community lived. We were to think about our blogs and which picture best represented our imagined audience. Many of us identified with the solitary house, undisturbed by visitors. In this example, the blogosphere was very small, and the owners felt disconnected from others. I, personally, identified with more of the community idea. I think that we, as classmates, will do a good job of connecting to each other. Our neighborhood may be removed from the larger aspect of the internet, but we have each other. The city seems far off, with a rather low possibility of visitors.
This may change. As we progress in the semester, and become more confident in our blogging, we may venture to the “city” and become more intertwined with other blogs. This possibility both excites and terrifies me. On the exciting side of things, we could be contributing to the internet (and society) in a more direct fashion. The flips side, however, is that we are open to more criticism. While this can be mitigated with having “thick skin” it’s never fun to be overly criticized.
In the article, Lampa talks about how the “typical blog” was revolved around the sharing of news and linking to other posts. These bloggers likely see their blogospheres as a bustling cityscape. They banded together through the use instant publishing for the purpose of sharing events and ideas. These blogs are integral to today’s media. They provide a personal view that is (usually) not skewed by profit. Traditional media sources are for profit organizations that often skew an issue to reflect their employer’s values or ideals. A blogger, on the other hand, is usually not receiving a profit for his posts. This allows her or him to be more direct or critical with the topic or (in some cases) product. These bloggers can also offer a first hand prospective into events. Lampa uses the example of September 11th, 2001 for this. Even after mainstream media let the event fade, bloggers continued to come forth with their experiences and thoughts.
There are many ways to imagine your blogosphere. Your thoughts and posts may change with time as well. It’s important to keep your audience in mind when you post and try not to be to critical of yourself, or others.
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