Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Reaction to Chapter 2 in Blogging @merica

For today's reaction I read Chapter 2 in Blogging @merica: The Public Sphere by Aaron Barlow. In this chapter called "The Blogs in Society," Barlow talks about how common the blog has become throughout the world and especially in America (p.35). With the development of the online blogging communities, the potential for anyone to become an author or journalist through the Internet is now a reality. Barlow mentions that the community is what makes blogging work. In the blogging community or also known as the blogosphere, people can maintain conversations with one another and exchange ideas in topics of their choice (p.37).

In this chapter, Barlow brings up the point that while participating in a blogging community, you can become vulnerable to threats and a lack of privacy. With personal information easily accessible through the Internet one must be careful of what they say while blogging (p.41). In the reading, Barlow gives a specific example of the threats that a blogger can encounter. He used a girl named Sierra that had her life threatened from a blogger who posted on her blog (p.38). Barlow also brought up the point of not blogging about things that might offend your coworkers or friends. He did this by using a writing by Chris Harris in the School Library Journal. In the article, Harris mentions the vulnerability of blogs and how they can be found easily through the Internet (Harris, 2007). In the rest of the chapter, Barlow brings up the issue of plagiarism in blogs. He mentions the differences between "hard plagiarism, which is copying and pasting one's work and soft plagiarism, which is expressing one's idea through your own words" (p.55).

In this chapter, Barlow talks about how plagiarism in blogs is not possible (p.56). This is because there are no laws against non-printed work, such as blogs. The copyright law covers people copying the work of others that have had their work published and copyrighted. I believe the law needs to be changed now that online writing through blogs is becoming a major form of media. For example, I participate in fantasy sports on the Internet and every day I glance at sports writer's blogs for useful information. This information needs to be protected because their ideas are unique and anyone shouldn't be able to copy them and take credit. The way people are writing is changing and because of this the laws must change too.





Bibliography

1. Barlow, Arron. (2008). Blogging @merica: The New Public Sphere. Westport: Praeger.

2. Harris, Chris, "Five Reasons Not to Blog," School Library Journal, April 2007, Vol. 53, Isue 4, 24.

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