Well, I have never looked at blogging in the way that Shirky analyzed it. He presents that blogging is something far more cut throat than I had ever imagined. Being someone who really never got into the whole blogging scene and really still isn't a big fan of posting personal thoughts and responses in this medium. However, with that being said, I do appreciate and respect those who take blogging as seriously as some of the bloggers that Shirky described.
First off I had no idea of the cut throat nature of blogging and just how nearly impossible it is to get recognized. Lanier in his book gave one example of someone who did just that though. Diablo Cody, he presented, an exotic dancer who was also an avid blogger was able to get noticed by a publishing company who took an interest to her blog. That publishing notice led book a book deal, which in turn was noticed by a film studio which led to a movie deal that produced that widely popular movie, Juno. This was something that I was not aware of whatsoever, I just thought that Judd Apatow had an idea for a movie about teen pregnancy , wouldn't have ever thought that it was some blogger-strippers work.
Drawing now more on the bell curve aspect that Shirky used and how it applys to the weblog aspect of his article, this theory can also be put into work with the grading policy being discussed in the classroom. While I know the vast majority of our classmates find the "bell curve" grading system to be a prime example of inequality. I know that this has been expressed in some of my classmates blogs already but I know its an issue that is still at the front of our minds, especially now that the blogs will be graded in an hour and a half. The inequality aspect of our blogs culminates with two things, time and experience. The aspect of time is almost too obvious, but the aspect of experience branches off into a couple different things. First off the experience of age is a big one, I know that myself and Max are the minority in this class being the two youngest, having just completed our first semester, where others like Frank have just completed their seventh. Don't get me wrong, I like and accept challenges with open arms and a smile but the prospect of competing with seniors and juniors for grades is an intimidating prospect. I know that this class rewards you for the work that you put in (at least that's my assumption) I just hope that the effort I give is sufficient to keep me in good standings with my fellow classmates.
I'd say blogging is definitely cut-throat. Anyone can create a blog (as we all did in class), but many successful blogs have come from luck (i.e. Julie's blog on Julia Child).
ReplyDeleteOthers, such as news blogs and celebrity blogs, have bigger mediums (such as television or websites) that help bring traffic to them.
The most widely-known blogs have bigger forces behind them.
I kind of agree with Andrew that many successful blogs come from luck. I think the fact that people like variety, and are picky will lower the chances of one weblog gaining massive traffic. Then again, it could be something interesting to a great amount of people.
ReplyDeleteLanier does not describe a bell curve; he describes a "power law" that looks like an L (remember, lots of losers and one winner). The bell curve puts most items/people in the middle (an average) with a few outliers on each end.
ReplyDeleteAlso, keep in mind the reason for Shirky's argument: he is telling folks that the fact that more people can access a medium does not lead to an equality of outcomes.