In Response to "Can Blogs Stand As Their Own Genre?"

In her blog post, “Can Blogs Stand As Their Own Genre?” Christina Morgan explores the history of blogs, social media culture, blogging in relation to journalism, and the idea of blogs as a genre, in response to Blogging: Digital Media and Society Series by Rettburg and “Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog” by Miller and Shepherd. Christina creates a wonderful synthesis of ideas in the two different text when she states, “As the ‘eagerness of humanity to communicate’ [Rettburg] has led to the transformation of what we consider to be blogging today, the intent to both cultivate the self and to provide for the public has created a unique and vast medium that is a genre of its own.” 

In response to Carolyn Burke, an online diarist mentioned by Rettburg, who claims that blogging allowed people to freely expose their lives for the first time, Christina asks, “What happens when people can freely communicate and expose their inner lives? What are the results of this free communication? And what will be the results of anyone being able to expose their inner lives?”

Free communication generates endless new ideas that are shared and debated instantaneously. Like most things, the results of anyone being able to expose his or her inner lives will have positive and negative effects. As we regularly see in pop culture through the many celebrities who struggle with increased publicity, too much exposure of private lives can be very detrimental to a person. Giving people the ability to freely share their lives, however, exposes people to a wide range of new thoughts and ideas. This can be interactive and makes the world a smaller place. Being honest and open is progressive as long as it is done genuinely and wisely.

“Are people really being open and honest or is the system abused at times?” Some people actually are genuine in their openness and honesty but, of course, this approach can also be abused. In her blog post, Christiana mentions Rettenburg’s research in a survey: “61.4 per cent of respondents stated that they read blogs because there was ‘more honesty’, while 50.3 per cent found the ‘transparent biases’ of blogs an important factor in their choice to read blogs”. Apparently people perceive blogs as more credible (than journalism) because blogs are honest and personal, but the public’s constructed image of honesty can be taken advantage of. For example, blogger Jonah Lehrer used the format and genre of blogging to his advantage in order to conceal his dishonesty. People reading Lehrer’s blog had the general assumption that his sources were credible and he did little to prove them wrong. It was not until his deception was discovered and his credibility was eradicated that his misuse of the medium became apparent. In most instances, however, blogs evoke a sense of validity.  

Christina questions why bloggers are creating this sense of trust and validity in their readers. Blogs rely on personal authenticity and bloggers build trust individually. I think a sense of trust and validity is created because a blog is part of a person’s identity. When information is attached to personal identity we are able to better connect with it and it becomes more believable in its appeal.