For the essay, I chose five online sources to discuss the assignment topic about “Blogging is a practice that is mundane and yet radical in its potential to transform individual and collective agency and activism.”
1. http://www.marcusodonnell.com/files/APMEODonnell.pdf
“Blogging as Pedagogic Practice: Artefact and Ecology” By Marcus O’Donnell
The first online source I found is written by Marcus Donnell, the content of this source is mainly about the practice of using blogging, it mentioned that blogs are the new communicative technique. Donnell first commented on the mundaneness of blogging, he said that whether we’re a professional journalist or we’re a teenage high school student, we will do the same thing: we use our blog to link to our friends and rivals and comment on what they’re doing. This point is clearly can explain why blogging is a mundane practice. The author also pointed out that blog posts are short, informal, sometimes are controversial, and sometimes deeply personal, no matter what topic they approach. He also argued that blogging is conversational, setting-up and supporting conversations with both self and others, and it connects the blogger to processes, discourses and communities. From this, it is obvious that this point is consistent with how blogging can transform individual and collective agency since blogs are the platform for users and visitors to communicate, its immediacy and its convenient influence individuals’ agency for using blogs, as well as encouraging individuals to use blogs regularly in everyday life.
2. http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/assets/documents/pdf/newmediapower.pdf
“New Media Power: The Internet and Global Activism” By W. Lance Bennett
The second online source is written by W. Lance Bennett. This source concerned with identifying what conditions enable individuals to use new media like mobile phones, the Internet, streaming technologies, wireless networks, and as the high quality publishing and information sharing capacities of the World Wide Web, both are the main reasons that can help me to explain how they affect individuals’ activism to use Internet, as well as blogs. Besides, Bennett mentioned a term: “Network army”, which is coined by Richard Hunter, Hunter described it as “… a collection of communities and individuals who are united on the basis of ideology, not geography. They are held together by public communications, the Internet being a prime example…. Network armies don't have a formal leadership structure….” This point can also prove that whether Internet or Blogging, there is no geographic boundaries that would block the activism among individuals or collectives, but can help encourage to expand the activism, to make it become more flexible and diverse. Another reason Bennett suggested is, since all of the World Wide Web services are free, and all of them are designed to enable individuals to publish their own weblogs quickly and easily- this can be used in my essay to analysis how weblogs transform individuals and collective agency and activism.
3. http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v33/v33_10337.pdf
“Consumer Activism on the Internet: The Role of Anti-brand Communities”
By Candice R. Hollenbeck and George M. Zinkhan
The third online source I chose is written by Candice R. Hollenbeck and George M. Zinkhan. This source also indicate the aspects that are influenced the individuals’ agency during using Internet. The first one authors pointed out is speed: the Internet is radically shaping action strategies by expediting netiznes activism endeavors. Speed significantly advances the abilities of netiznes activist groups in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. The second aspect is convenience. The Internet enhance netizens activist strategies by making participation, information-sharing, and identification of social groups more convenient. The third aspect is community formation. The Internet enhances the diversity of consumer activist groups. Internet broke down the barriers of age, race, nationality, sexual orientation, the distance between netizens all over the world became closer, and the authors believe that it is important to value differences while Internet users or blogging users do not really care who participates in the discussions, the only thing they care about is their contribution, as web-communities provide a place for netizens to gather and share,- this definitely will change individuals' agency and activism on using Internet, even blogging.
4.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00379.x/full
“Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework” By Jan Schmidt
The forth online source is written by Jan Schmidt. The author agreed that netizens tend to use specific software (blogs) to attain specific communicative goals- that’s the reason individuals chose to use blogs. Furthermore, Schmidt brought up how individuals act their activism through blogging: while blogging episodes are acted out by a single blogger, they necessarily involve other actors who produce content (which can be selected for reading), are readers themselves (thus influencing particular ways of identity management), and/or might be the destination of a networking act through referencing or commenting. The author also mentioned that the individuals or collective agency can be found obviously in blogging practices, such as 1) running a link log or filter blog; 2) following a selection of online sources related to one’s interests; 3) guided by rules of information management; 4) editing certain information for publication in one’s own blog according to strategies of identity management (i.e., adding one’s own remarks to the posting); and 5) engaging in relationship management by publishing the posting with a link to the original source, thus connecting to its author. Another aspect Schmidt remarked as a reason for individuals tend to use blog is to build up social relations, the author also suggested a way of establishing relations between blogs: through the use of comments- since they usually contain a link back to the commentator’s own blog (if existing) and might even include further references.
5. http://www.blogpulse.com/papers/www2004gumbrecht.pdf
“Blogs as ‘Protected Space’ ” By Michelle Gumbrecht
The last online source is written by Michelle Gumbrecht. In this source, She commented on her research’s results about blogging: as the Internet world increases our connectedness with one another as a global community, there are those among the blogging world who do not embrace that sentiment. Blogging has created interesting dynamics that uniquely set it apart from other media of communication. Family, friends, and strangers are all potential audience members for bloggers. As such, the research found that bloggers try to maintain a delicate balance between satisfying themselves and their audience with their content. If the equilibrium is disturbed, bloggers find that they are “protected” from immediate retribution because of the limited interactivity of the blog. The blog as “safety net” metaphor—as one of our informants neatly phrased it—can influence a blogger’s decision to present news within the blog versus over the phone, over IM, or even in a face-to-face interaction: this argument clearly shows that how individuals’ agency and activism are being influenced. The research also found that the importance of feedback and commenting hinged upon our bloggers’ sense of “community- mindedness”. Bloggers who used their blogs within educational settings, for open exchanges of ideas, or solicitations for advice greatly valued feedback because it increased interaction and made for lively discussion. However, Gumbrecht also pointed out that those who didn’t embrace “community” didn’t place as great an emphasis on feedback, these particular bloggers appreciated the features of protected space and limited interactivity that blogs afforded them- this can be used as explanation of the limitations on transforming individuals and collective agency and activism while using blogs.
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