Assignment 1

As a virgin to the blogging world I wasn’t sure what to expect. I didn’t really care to understand why people blog. Through this assignment I was given a chance to see the pros and cons of belonging to the blogging world and understand the new trend of citizen journalism. As a CIS (computer information systems) major I know what you would have to do to create a website that you would like to broadcast to millions of people. You would have to understand the use of HTML CSS, understand JAVA programming language, I don’t even think I will go on as to confuse you further but take my word for it when I say it is very easy to have your own website in 2009. This is a huge reason why blogging has become such a phenomenon. There are websites that make it so easy for people to set up their blog site and start transferring their thoughts straight to the general public. Blogging has given a lot of people who didn’t have one before a voice. They now have a medium where they can go and say whatever it is that they want to say as Rettberg states “bloggers could, in effect, own a press.”(85)

One of the great things about blogging is the convenience of it all As soon as the amazing idea comes to your head you can head straight to the computer and jot it down. For me blogging serves as another viewpoint. It gives you the chance to view the opinions of others on a particular subject. In his article Andrew Sullivan writes that " We blog now—as news reaches us, as facts emerge." So for many there is the removal of the hastle of being hired by a newspaper, television or radio company but now you have the luxury of sitting at home and reporting news to a broad audience.

Yoani Sanchez serves as an example of what Rettberg describes as blogging from a war zone. She is a citizen journalist from Cuba and is fortunate enough to have her blog site Generacion Y become so popular. She herself is excited about blogging because she states that “we Cubans have a need for this kind of public forum where we can freely exchange our views.”She speaks about her daily attacks and experiences in Cuba and she updates her blog often with videos and pictures.

We all know that with everything there is a good and bad. Though blogging has its perks it also has its bad. One problem with blogging is that a lot of what is said will hold no merit because some people would just think that the person is complaining or exaggerating the situation. Of course, you cannot believe everything you see on blogs Blogging is very subjective so what is said will have to be backed up by good documentation in order for people to believe.

Blogging is becoming more and more popular each day. Blogging isn’t a threat to journalism but it’s a new definition of the term journalism. Mainstream media will have to share the platform with the new Blogging World.