Lecture 4, Blog 4

19/10/2009
Danielle Boden
elu6d2

E-Publishing
Lecture 4
Blog 4

Web blogging, what is it?
• Web page has the most recent item at the top.
• Links to other blogs.
• In relation to political candidates now have to have web blogs because people (hundreds) comment on it.

WHY would they want a blog where people can write negative comments and disagree with party political policies?

• Popular
• Everyone is blogging - it is ‘techie’, up to date.



• Primary source of news for a large demographic, for example: Obama claims his success was primarily due to his Web campaign.
• Looking at history if politicians didn’t have their face on the television their reputation was unknown and they would be criticised by the media for not appearing on television, this is very much the situation now with blogging.
• It gets your name out there.
• Builds support

The problem with blogging is that stories get lost in translation and if something is repeated often enough it will become truth. For example: there has been a recent story on the toxic waste where the company have placed an injunction against the media not to report what happened. Therefore the people will try to find the answer but it does not necessarily mean that what they have found is the truth behind the story.
Here is the link to the BBC's coverage of this story:

Written article by the BBC.

Original written article by the Guardian.

Twittering is just an extreme form of blogging.

Liability and slander… who is responsible? On blog sites you agree to terms and conditions not to slander however you may not realise you have agreed to these conditions, as most people do not read the small print. There is also a disclaimer whereby the web publisher, (blogger.com etc…), advise that the opinions held on this site are not necessarily that of the publisher.

So what is the importance of truth in blogs?
• It is a propaganda tool. (‘blogasphere’)
• Known as ‘astro-surfing’ because there would be a big back lash if an extremely was told, bad implications.
• No opinions on blogging have an origin point.
• Animosity! No person or institution. ANONOMOUS.
• Other than politics or companies (institutions) to humanise and deliver their opinions.
• Blogs are casual and has a human face (real blog) – how many are actually like this? It is a way of communicating.
• However: there are t ways of defining blogging there is the technical definition of a web page with the most recent post at the top or the definition of blogging in practice.


Why is a blog not a political tool?

RSS: Really Simple Syndication. Putting the word out to people. RSS Feed.
XML: All in one content and can be distributed in different ways.

Read. Write. Web The basic idea is useful. You don’t have to go looking for it all it comes to you.
On the Bangor Website and even your own computer you can subscribe to certain RSS web pages through your URL. To do this save it through your fire-fox.

FLOCK: Social Web Browser. Look for RSS feeds.



Webpage. XML. Ends in RSS. Channels, items have a title and a link.
Feed: You don’t often create these yourself, and you don’t normally keep them up to date manually.

Tags: - metadata about the construction of an RSS feed. You wouldn’t make a website like this.
The browser knows that it is and RSS feed made up of an XML format, therefore the dtat base creates the code for you.

Moral and legal implications of adding value to your webpage have links back to the other/original article. Google-ad-sense – Gives you a code that goes on your webpage.
How do they make money form it?
Advertising – From every click your money accrues.
= Industry.
Sponsorship.

Increase profile as an industry expert – get their name out there – raise profile.

Money doesn’t taint anything it just makes it possible to produce. You can’t use blogs as a reference point because you don’t know who wrote it, it is not a reliable source. You can do background research to see if it can be more reliable.

So, how can you quote something from a blog?

Is it a source?
There will have been no peer or editorial reviews. No one is checking for spelling, grammar or formatting mistakes.
The facts and sources need to have been checked and double-checked. It might be your opinion but is there support to back up why I am or could be right.

In my blog entry in week three looked at publishing a book and had to think about it in a blog.

Artefact. Editorial project where you make things available, however, do we understand what is being described?

Why do we need to e-publish theory in action – learn it then apply theory.

e-kindel.

Potentially opening up the changes I your opinion about the traditional book. It is something you don’t know about until you try it.

Easy access to texts.

Recombining content
= Adding value
Different layouts and design

For next week;

What are the possibilities of publishing and e-book and how can I best leverage that?

What sort of project are you going to be doing and why?

Look at other peoples blogs and leave positive and negative feedback of evidence of sources, arguments, strengths and weaknesses.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog this week.
Blog ya' later!

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