Samysj’s Weblog

Blogging on.

Umming and ahhing about what I could include in my very own blog, it suddenly struck me, Blogging! Why had I never noticed how big blogging had become? Specifically interesting is the fact that celebrity blogging has more recently become popular through online sites such as Perezhilton.com.

Perez writes his very own blog in which he likes to talk about the celebrities he has encountered in the past day, whether he has found a hideous picture of them leaving the gym, or has come across some juicy information he wishes to share with the world – whether it be true or not – or if he simply wants to share a video or talk about something in the press. It is very trashy and very addictive! The blog is written entirely about celebrities and sometimes he includes snippets of blogs written by celebs themselves, such as Lily Allen who moaned about her 2007 tour of the US saying she felt fat and frumpy amongst all the beautiful American women and rmore ecently the Spice Girls who talked about their current comeback tour.

 http://perezhilton.com/?p=4058  

But this celeb craze is not something which will be copied by millions of fans, such as the miniature dog going everywhere you do, crazy dieting, the posh pob haircut…I could go on, this is actually one trend that came after us mere mortal, non-celebs started it! It seems to be a way for celebrities to keep a diary, whilst also informing their fans of what they’re getting upto, kind of a way to keep themselves down to earth while still remaining famous. 

So why do we like to blog?

 Blogging is the ideal way for an audience member to put their own thoughts across; responses, values, beliefs or even just general ranting. Also, it means that the individual has the potential to go from an audience member to having an audience of their very own, and who wouldn’t want that?! 

“A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.”

Blogs can also be used as political tools. Although the personal blog – or online diary – is the most common type of blog, it usually receives little media attention. The greatest impact on mainstream media comes not from personal journals but from political blogs.  In 2004, political blogs dominated the top of blog rankings such as those published at Technorati.com, Daypop.com and Truthlaidbear.com.  

So what motivates a political blogger? 

If the Clinton-Lewinsky outrage of the late 1990s is the event that marked the birth of online journalism, then the terrorist attacks of September 11^th 2001 did the same for blogging. Although they first appeared in the late 1990’s, it was after the tragedy of 9/11 that the trend of blogging began to spread rapidly. Many of these blogs focused around the events of this day and consequently President Bush’s war on terrorism, one example is the conservative blog Vodkapundit.com which began 4 months after 9/11 with a post titled “Why Aren’t We Bombing Iraq Back to the Stone Age Already?” On the liberal side, Dailykos.com started 8 months after 9/11 and included frequent posts regarding the war on terrorism and the building up to the Iraq invasion. The war proved an advantage to bloggers as they provided round-the-cock commentary on its execution. These so-called war blogs typically evolved to include discussion of politics and current events, including the 2002/2004 US elections.  

Blogs also proved to be an invaluable tool for communication and fundraising after the tsunami, sites like tsunamihelp.blogspot.com were able to mobilize relief efforts and coordinate volunteers. Much like my idea for charity fundraising in my blog about the boys from Ibizadiary.com!  

Blogging can also be related to citizen journalism, which has become an innovative way in which the public can get involved in bringing the news to the world quickly, and even more effectively in some cases due to the closeness of which they might be involved with the news. The July 2005 bombings in London proved to be another major source of discussion for bloggers, using their mobile phones, eyewitnesses took pictures of chaotic scenes that were then posted on blogs within minutes (and on a few cutting-edge news sites such as those run by the BBC.)  

If news events such as these encouraged the growth of the blogosphere, the question is ‘Why?’ Readers could always get the essential information from mainstream news sites, but the blogs provide something different. The best of them offer a service to readers by monitoring the web for the latest unique facets of the stories. Instead of visiting dozens of news sites, a good topical blogger can do that for the reader. 

“Blogs give readers the impression that they are getting unmediated raw information”. 

They provide not only the news of the event but also instantaneous written commentary on it, allowing for feedback from readers in the form of comment functions available on many blogs, even readers who do not leave an opinion (probably the vast majority) get the sense of being part of an event by reading the live discourse of others.  

The influence of amateur news and information providers stems from several factors: firstly they have outsider status. Like TV news in the 1950’s they are seen as conduits to raw information, somehow less corrupted by power than their predecessors. Secondly, some have attained a large audience. Regardless of whether they should have an audience, they do, and with it comes power. Lastly, they have the ‘power of collective’. Even if many individual blogs have just a few hundred regular readers, collectively the blogosphere can generate a louder ‘buzz’.  

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D8Q-Z5HEpA&feature=related

Do blogs pose a threat to mainstream media? 

Blogs represent a threat to mainstream media in a number of ways, as the rapid expansion of the cable universe inevitably led to a slow decline of audience share for the old broadcast networks, so too can we expect a decline in use of preweb media. Unlike cable television, for which content production is expensive and channels number in the hundreds, blog content is cheap to produce, is free to the consumer and numbers its channels in the millions.

The CD version of the album?! Vs the Apple iPod

After last weeks festivities I got together with my friends for a bit of socialising, there is only so much family time we can all take, so we piled round my friend Kelly’s house to play on her nintendo wii and eat leftover chocolates while her parents were on holiday, we decided to put on a bit of music to liven the mood when another friend Stephen asked if she had Britney Spears new album, replying yes Kelly asked if he’d like to borrow it (obviously not for any illegal copying)

“Yes. Could I borrow the cd version of the album please?”

 I sat for a second and thought to myself well what other version of the album would there be? In my usual sarcastic trail of thought when I suddenly realised, of course, cds are no longer the dominant formats of music these days, especially among the younger generations like myself and my friends. Had she not been one of crazy Spears biggest fans and received the album for christmas, she could have simply downloaded the album.

I thought about the last album I bought for myself, not including ones I received as gifts from other people, and realised that I was still in school when I bought it! But I havent gone without my favourite music, so do people need cd’s anymore? And if not then why do people still bother to buy them at all? 

“iTunes are to audio what McDonald’s is to hamburgers, but if this is how the public wants to buy music, then let ‘em have it.”

By January 2006 Apple had announced its first quarter net profit of $565 million. Clearly proving that the ever popular iPod range was not just another new fad, which like many things would die out after the novelty had worn off.

It seems that people are now willing to sacrifice sound quality for the convenience of downloading at the cheapest possible prices, and better still, for free. Is it possible that just like finding vinyls, it is eventually going to become impossible for people to get hold of a cd? Personally I feel that although this theory is not completely absurd, people and music industries are overreacting when it comes to downloading, downloading is possibly the music fans version of a strike, until the prices of cd’s come down, then many people simply just cannot afford to buy them. Albums can now sell for up to 15 pounds (and that is often for one cd, never mind a double disc album) which seems ridiculous when you can buy a concert ticket for not much more. Downloading is much like the musical version of taking a car for a test drive; you wouldn’t walk into a showroom, pick out a car and hand over the money without first checking it out! Downloading allows the listener first hand access to music they think they might want to buy, rather than having to wait to hear individual songs on the radio (after all we can’t choose what comes on the radio) or committing to spending the money on buying the full album only to realize that there is actually only one decent song on there. Through downloading people get to sample the music which they might eventually buy themselves anyway if they find they like it, which in turn would actually profit the music industry (as long as the person had legally downloaded the music.)

Even so, there are always going to be people who just don’t like the idea that the iPod detaches us that little bit further from reality.

“There are other ways we seem to disconnect from the real world. With the popularity of iPods, we have discovered another way to slip inside our own worlds and ignore the outside reality. I can’t deny that the digital music player is a great invention, but it does seem to have put a certain distance between people as we walk around, earbuds blasting, oblivious to the other people around us.”

Dinah Stephens – The Santa Clara

IbizaDiary.com

Reading the Daily Star one day over summer, I came across an article about six young men who were trying to raise enough money to return to the island of Ibiza, where they had recently gone on a lads holiday. What interested me about this article was their innovative way of making the money, they decided to charge readers 1 pound to access their online diary from their previous holiday antics.

 The webpage www.ibizadiary.com contains a small introduction, diary extracts and the option to purchase the full version of the diary. Up to now the boys have raised around 1050 pounds out of the 2000 they hope to raise to be able to afford another holiday.

Without the use of the fairly new technology that is the internet, the boys could not have so easily found a way to make the money. They could have advertised through newspapers, magazines or on tv and so on, but this would have been more expensive and time consuming, not good when they’re trying to raise money in the first place!

 It got me thinking about what this form of advertising could do for charities, for example, if a certain charity such as a breast cancer charity advertised on a website for womens clothing/breast enhancement or an animal charity advertised on a website for petcare/products then it would also be much cheaper, I also think that, this way, people would be more likely to make a donation because they can do it quickly and easily over the internet, rather than sending off for details of how to send money or set up a direct debit, plus this is a good way for advertisers to reach the relevant audience.

You’re telling me that’s art?!

A couple of days ago my boyfriend’s mum made me laugh with stories of a weekend in Liverpool with her friends. While her and most of her friends were happy to shop, drink and dance the weekend away, one of the women insisted that they visit some art galleries, one of which was the Liverpool Tate. She told me how after queueing for some time to get in, with much anticipation they came to one piece which was basically ‘a pile of twigs’. Laughing to her friend and complaining about the length of time they had waited, she asked was this it? Her friend tried to reason by saying that she must see the artistic relevance of the composition of the twigs (or something like this…?) but she stuck to her guns, “no, it’s a pile of twigs, you can’t tell me that’s art!”.

This made me laugh because it reminded me of my own friend Jane, even on my first visit to York St John before starting university, she dragged me along to the art gallery at the earliest possible opportunity, when all I wanted to do was find out about the University and the course. The same thing happened on a shopping trip to Newcastle, first came the Baltic then the Laing and god knows how many others she’s dragged me to.

While I can appreciate some art, like the work and detail that might go into a painting, I do find a lot of it to be ‘just a pile of twigs’, much like Tracey Emin’s ‘Unmade Bed’, this particular artist pretty much made her name through this exhibition in which she displayed the bed which she apparently lived in over a period of months. While my friend Jane looks to this woman as her idol and loves all the work that she does, I on the other hand, struggle to understand how she has made such a living out of displaying things such as a messy bed.

It all just got me thinking about what makes some people see artistic relevance and not others? Do we all see it and it’s just that some of us choose not to take an interest? or do some of us genuinely not get art, and just take things at face value? I think, in general that people who aren’t interested in art have only ever known art as ‘nice pictures’ that we have to like to be considered as art, and the more we are exposed to abstract art we will eventually begin to see things as more than just ‘a pile of twigs’, although this doesn’t necessarily mean we will like the art!

In relation to my ideas surrounding art and its audiences, I found an article from january 2003 on the bbc news website titled ‘Are London art audiences more sophisticated?’ claiming that people in the north of England are not sophisticated enough to appreciate major works of art.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2658785.stm

Brian Sewell – a London based art critic, said that a new exhibition by post-war artists due to open on Tyneside should have been displayed in the capital.   “By the very nature of the audience in London it is exposed to very much more art and culture and is therefore more sophisticated. There is no doubt about it.”  Member of the Arts Council Paul Collard, and chairman of Northern Arts suggested that Northern audiences were just as sophisticated as those in London. “Investment in cultural facilities in the regions has stimulated an extraordinary renaissance in regional capitals like Newcastle,”

As I have said, and also as Brian Sewell  is trying to suggest, it is not likely to be the region we come from which determines how artistically sophisticated or experienced we are, but the amount of exposure to art we have.

Technology replacing people?

All over the world, especially in industrialised countries, people regularly spend a lot of time with different forms of media, often more time than they spend at work or school in face to face communication. Within a single generation, homes have become media-rich with multiple televisions, radios, games machines, computers, music systems and telephones – typically switching from household posessions to personal posessions – accompanying us wherever we go. In our everyday engagement with friends and family, with the community, the political system, the nation and beyond, we draw upon, and increasingly rely upon, a never-ending flood of images, ideas and information about worlds distant in space or time and those close to home.

Today (5th Oct was when I wrote this down) technology took a hold of me! If it had been a challenge for me to avoid all modern technology, I’m afraid I would have failed miserably (or had the most boring day of my life) infact I often ask my parents what the hell they did back in ‘their day’ before they had mobiles or the internet, and I will admit that my mobile phone isn’t a mobile at all, but is infact an extra limb (ok maybe a digit). I had the house to myself, I switched on the TV after relying on my mobile phone alarm to wake me up (when my actual alarm clock  is just as near). I will often receive text messages from my flatmate asking if I am in the house, even when she is in the house too and our rooms are next door to eachother! I then rang my mum (after noticing the date – on the screen of my phone) to check today was my sisters birthday, she said no and that it was tomorrow, so I then set a reminder on my phone for the next day to remind myself to text my sister and wish her a happy birthday (I had already sent a card in the post a few days earlier so I wouldn’t forget, and I only remembered this as a few days earlier I was in town walking past a card shop advertising something to do with brithdays). I then spent the next few hours on my laptop with the TV on in the background and my mobile phone next to me, in this time I checked the TV listings on the Radio Times website and also checked my online account for my mobile phone!

It’s a viscious circle of technology, where would I have been without it that day? I might have gone out and actually spoken to people! Imagine our homes without screens, our daily routines without television, our work without the internet, our friendships without shared music interests, and it is obvious how much we are all part of media audiences.

According to Abercrombie and Longhurst there are three broad phases in audience history: the simple audience, the mass audience and the diffused audience. My day avoided the ‘simple audience’ phase altogether, which consists of face to face, direct communication, in public, a theater or political meeting for example. I touched briefly on the second phase ‘the mass audience’ which is highly mediated, spatially, even globally dispersed, often in private e.g newspapers, readership or tv audience, and spent most of my day in the third phase ‘the diffused audience’ strongly dispersed and fragmented, ‘always on’ internet connection (of which I have the same type of connection at my parents house), multitasks, working from home, watching tv, shopping online, chat rooms or fan cultures.

Audience within an audience?

Myspace featured a band called the Plain White T’s, and their soon to be huge song ‘Hey there Delilah’ was posted onto their page. Fans then recreated their own versions of the song, reposting them on their own myspace pages for others to see.

I found this interesting because I had seen something very similar on a gossip website last week. Heatworld.com featured a video clip of a Britney Spears fan who had posted a video of himself on Youtube defending the troubled star, then also posted a video of his own version of her new single ‘Gimme More’ which to me seemed a total pisstake/parody. This fan generated more media attention in that one week (from 2 video clips) than possibly Britney herself! 

Hello world!

There are three main issues or themes to consider when we think about ourselves as creative audiences, such as how our experiences as audience members have changed over time. Technology; we need to understand audience relationships with a new spectrum of media outlets. Social/Spatial; changing physical and social locations. Experience; increading individualisation of audience access and interactivity.