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Angelica Botlo Professor Sullivan ENWR 1506 April 29, 2013 A New Communication: The Formation of a New Feedback Loop Through Blogs On the most macro level, the Internet unites people and consolidates information in way never seen before, and is thus able to create new lines of communication across the globe. The evolution of reading and writing online effectively proves this new form of communication and as more people find their voices and audiences on the Internet and more knowledge circulates in society, strengthening the information age. The main method of written digital media is blogs, a new forum for writers of all ages and races with an Internet connection are able to express their interests and opinions for whoever reads their content. Blogs create a new kind of information pool, unlike search engines, dictionaries, or similar sights which just automatically present information using an pre-­‐programed algorithm and a static website. Blogs engage readers in a constant feedback loop between posted content and responses, such as comments, social media sharing, and emails from the audience. Therefore, in order for blogs to unify information across the web amongst its users that contain a curiosity in the topic, bloggers must create or enhance a community by balancing written appeals with individuality and creativity in blog content and format. Blogs create a new society on the Internet while continuously presenting and exchanging information, therefore creating a connection between blogs and search engines. Blogs and search engines share many similarities and differences in the Internet world. In fact, according to Dean in her article, “Death of Blogging,” she writes that, “the first blogs were responding to the same problems that led to the development of search engines.” Both blogs and search engines utilize and present information to the public through the Internet however, now I argue that the gap between search engines and blogs has widened. Search engines differ themselves from blogs because they consolidate information on an automatic program that distributes knowledge easily to users through one simple and continuous process of placing key words in a search bar. Though this allows users to gain information quickly and effectively, it does not allow people to engage in a full feedback loop of knowledge and causes the success of the sights to simply be measured by the amount of hits they get in a day. On the other hand, blogs engage their audience in a “feedback loop”, a term used by James Gleick in his book The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood, which allows participants to comment on blogs in order to improve and self-­‐regulate the content posted and conversations discussed. Therefore, blog’s value their success based on the amount of people who explore the sight as well as the amount of input they gain from the audience. For this reason, bloggers select the content they upload in order to appeal to a specific group of people and create a greater relationship between themselves and their readers that cannot be accomplished over a search engine. They accomplish this through both writing conventions, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, as well as an organized and appealing format for their website. Blog authors must remember that an “audience encompasses those you cite in writing about an issue and those you anticipate responding to your argument.” (Greene and Lidinsky, 199) On a basic level, blogs attempt to engage readers enough to read a post and be intrigued enough to continue exploring the website and even connecting with the reader and other users through conversation in the comment section or other forums. This enables users to exchange information and does not limit the source of information to just the blog poster. Moreover, bloggers can attempt to prove a point or sway the readers’ opinion on a certain issue with their posts, creating a discussion about the topic in the comments that can lead to a more argumentative style blog. Both of these strategies can be achieved using the writing conventions of ethos, pathos, and logos. The concept of ethos does not build off the expected necessities of a persuasion argument, such as reason and logic, but rather on character judgment of the source. Ethos highlights the fact that readers will be more willing to approve of an argument made by a person they think is trustworthy rather than an author they believe has a negative moral character or simply not stake in the topic at hand. For example, writers of the UVa Her Campus blog, a sight that discusses issues related to women at this University, appeal to their audience’s ethos because they, as female students at UVa, have an abundant amount of experience and insight into their topic and thus their readers can trust the content they post. Thus, this enables them to gain consistent readers who keep returning due to this appeal to ethos. Another form of persuasion that bloggers employ to gain the attention of their readers is pathos, which “recognizes that people are moved to action by their emotions as well as by reasonable arguments.” (Greene and Lidinsky, 208) In the case of blogs, readers react to a pathos argument commonly by responding to a blog post or sharing the information with friends in order to continue or start a new conversation. The UVa Her Campus blog also utilizes pathos in a beneficial way by writing articles specifically geared to women and their emotions, as stereotypical as they might be. More specifically, a Her Campus writer wrote a post on the end of her first year at UVa, reflecting on the experience she has had and how it has impacted her life, which many other fellow first year women can relate to on a sentimental level. By utilizing not only all-­‐female writer but also appealing to common topics and information that can unite women of this specific university, Her Campus persuades reader to engage in the blog by responding to or sharing the content presented. In contrast to pathos, the final form of persuasion is logos, the use of logic by a writer in order to bring readers to the same conclusion as the author (Greene and Lidinsky, 214). In some blogs, the use of logos is the most effective way to present a topic or information and ensure that the audience can entrust the validity of the information. For instance, a citizen journal blog run out of a small town in Nevada, entitled Mesquite Citizen Journal, writes news articles and often editorial articles that must use logic in order to express its opinion to the people of the town. In one editorial entitled, “An open letter to the Nevada Attorney General,” the author uses logos in order to prove why she is displeased with the work of the Attorney General and why she feels the citizens of the town should agree with her. What must be understood between these three writing conventions, ethos, pathos, and logos, is that persuasive blogs do not necessarily need to utilize all three conventions but they must write for their audience and thus choose which of the three will most appeal to their reader. For example, a blog writing for children may not be able to use logos in order to appeal to their reader as a blog for men may not be able to use the same kinds of emotions as a woman’s blog in order to present its information. Writers must strike a balance in order to appeal best to their readers. Due to the fact that writing conventions such as ethos, pathos, and logos present itself throughout the writing world, whether printed or online, the uniqueness of blogs lies in online formatting. In the article “Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog” by Carolyn Miller and Dawn Shepherd, they discuss the basic conventions of blog formatting, which are necessary to all blogs, but are not the factor that sets blogs apart from other Internet forums. Blogs allow writers to be unique and create a forum on the Internet that reflect the nature of their writing that can be organized in any way they please as a new form of self-­‐
expression. However, bloggers must still accomplish this task with the reader in mind, as the content must reflect the format of the blog and thus draw the reader into the blog. Though many blogs and bloggers contain the same basic format necessities, such as “dated entries starting with the most recent, and a majority include external links” (Miller and Shepard), they also have the freedom to choose colors and images that present themselves to the reader. Therefore, bloggers must also strike a balance in this sense. They must express their information in an organized and easy to use way that links their reader easily to the comments section of their blog or that allows the reader to follow hyperlinks to bring them to other sources across the web that can enhance their information. However, blogs contain a creative factor that must show the personality of the writer and content, making the blog interesting and personal. A blog that accomplishes this task well is the UVa Her Campus blog, which presents its posts in chronological order and also sorted by writer or column, such as the Campus Cuties column. The Her Campus blog mixes this with bright colors, an interesting font, and even a picture of the Rotunda at the very top of the page. This is custom designed for the bloggers audience, women at the University of Virginia who are interested in the topics for women that the blog presents. The Mesquite Citizen Journal blog also creates a successful format however without bright colors or many images. The blog does not have any fancy fonts or particularly interesting colors but this minimalist design allows all people of their town to utilize the blog even if they are not very well practiced in using the Internet. These are the decisions that every blogger must face, they must consider their audience when designing the blog just as much as when they are writing it. If bloggers can accomplish this, they will strengthen the quality of the blog and ensure that they are receiving the proper feedback from their intended audience. This idea of selective form of blogs connects to a previous point made in this paper and further shows the difference between blogs and search engines. As search engines present their information on a static website, bloggers are able to change their format and embed their personality onto their website while still engaging the reader through their voice in their writing. This adds a significant element to blogs as a new forum for writing in this technological age. All of these factors presented above, discussing writing and formation of blogs, leads themselves to one pinnacle point. This is that writers must accomplish these tasks effectively because if they are unable to engage readers in their blogs, a difficult feat in the world of the Internet that contains thousands of blogs, they will never realize the full potential of blogging. This potential remains in the ability of prosperous blogs to either enhance or build a community on the Internet. For instance, the Mesquite Citizen Journal brings together the people of this one town to a place where all citizens can discuss the issues and stories that relate to their community. Through proper presentation of ethos, pathos, and logos as well as a simple format that allows all users to access and understand the blog, the writers of the blog are able to enhance their community in an online forum. These bloggers, in order to enhance the community, “give readers the opportunity to provide feedback either by posting comments directly on the blog or through email” (Miller and Shepard) because they care about their readers and would like to engage them in direct conversation. This communication further enriches the community and the feedback loop between blog readers and writers. However, blogs are not only created to enhance communities but in some cases are made in bring people from different regions of the globe together in order to create a community. Often times, bloggers accomplish this by engaging readers specifically interested in one topic. Often beauty blogs accomplish this by creating a forum for makeup artists, both amateur and professional, to share their favorite products or display their techniques. For example, the blog XO Vain is a forum that allowed a UVa girl interested in makeup to post about her routine and express her makeup techniques to a world of enthusiasts and professionals across the country and even across the globe. She is able to directly engage with the many responders easily in the comments section and is now even acquainted with some of the makeup artists so well that she has created friendships through this blog. This blog, by opening their posts to outsiders who would like to contribute to content and create a new conversation about their topic allows many different people to become invested and engage in their posts. Now many females continuously check and read the blog and in turn build a community from their common interest. As many writers post and comment on the blog, they exchange information from across the world that allows for many different experiences and perspectives from users that have a stake in the topic. This point, therefore, reveals the other difference between blogs and search engines that states that blogs create a new form of information consolidation that allows for the opinions and inputs of many contributors, not an automated system. In the new age of information technology, writing is not longer static in books or journal articles but are now interactive on the web. Audiences are becoming engaged in the written content more effectively as they are able to instantly comment, respond, and present their opinion or outside information on the website. This creates a continuous feedback loop between readers and writers and thus maximizes the amount of information present on blogs while minimizing the amount of time needed to facilitate this communication. However, this positive aspect of blogs is met with a challenge, that there are such as high number of blogs on the Internet that each author must truly write for their reader. They accomplish this by utilizing writing conventions that draw the reader to the content of the blog and also by formatting the blog in such a way that engages the reader further while minimizing search time on the blog. Both of these factors are codependent on the other as bloggers must format their blog effectively in order to easily bring readers to their posts but must also have interesting and relevant content on their blogs that allow readers to respond to the information. Without these two primary requirements, the blogs will not promote an active readership and thus not be able to encourage the enhancement or the creation of a community online. Successful blogs act as a specialized search engine that can unite people in one city block or even across the globe that have a stake in the topic they are presenting in order to exchange information and opinion to enrich the knowledge of the digital age. Bibliography Dean, Jodi. "The Death of Blogging." Web. <https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/access/content/group/9cebd794-­‐3446-­‐492a-­‐9754-­‐
b1430ad97fc6/DeanDeathofBlogging.pdf>. Gleick, James. The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2011. 310-­‐323. Print. Greene, Stuart, and April Lidinsky. From Inquiry to Academic Writing. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 199-­‐218. Print. Miller, Carolyn, and Dawn Shepherd. "Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog." Into the Blogosphere . n. page. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_
of_the_weblog.html>.