myLot

http://www.mylot.com/

myLot is a blog site – people from around the world can blog on different topics.

There are different sections - top news headlines, most active news, sports, most active blogs, television, music, technology, life … The site is organized making it easy for one to choose where to put one’s blog posts up according to their interests.

POPURLS - "Genuine Agreggator"

I "stumbled upon" the website, POPURLS, just the other day and felt it was worth mentioning in the blog. The website is regarded as "the genuine news aggregator for the latest web buzz." The site lists a great number of social networking sites and general topics including, popular news, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Flickr, YouTube, Google Blogs, New York Times, Hulu, Fark, and many others. The site then lists the latest and most popular links from each site. I checked the site again this morning and the links had changed since the last time I checked. The website is constantly updating the links the ensure that the current, most viewed site from is posted. This is a great way to obtain news and become educated on the issues ongoing today or simply to find funny videos or blog posts. Regardless of your intentions on the site, POPURLS proves to be an intelligent site dedicated to bringing you the latest buzz.

Tumblr: Really The Next Big Thing?

I have to admit, that yes, I follow John Mayer on Twitter. He was one of the first celebrities to make it "cool" and was on it before everyone jumped on Twitter's bandwagon. Plus, I've kinda had a thing for him since 2002.
Mayer recently publicly stated how he believes that Twitter has reached its peak, and that he constantly struggles over whether or not to cancel his account. For him personally, this makes sense, as his current interviews have consistently gotten worse, allowing for more critcism to go his way.
But his remarks about Tumblr, another social media site I haven't payed much attention to sparked some interest in me. I'm sure we've talked about this site before in class, but I hadn't really gone further than looking at the site's homepage until now. By the way, here is a link of Mayer's remarks about Twitter, Tumblr and social media in general:

http://jhnmyr.tumblr.com/post/554610743/twitter-isnt-over-im-over-it

So after I saw his post, I decided to take a deeper look at Tumblr. And what I found so far is that it's an impressive blogging platform that ties together Twitter and Facebook's best aspects. You create your blog, which you can post anything to (text, video, audio, links, etc.). This is typical, but Tumblr takes things further than that. I'm still trying to get more familiar with the site, and created my own blog, which I hope to further utilize, but I do think so far that Mayer had a good point in saying it's taking a step further than Twitter because it ties together all of the best things about social media. When you have the ability to follow other users(like Twitter), incorporate anything onto yours and other peoples' blogs (kindof like ReTweeting), and where you can like other peoples' posts and they can like yours (like Facebook) there is much more interaction than we see on other platforms.
I think of all the new new media I've taken a look at during the course of this semester, this site shows a lot of potential (at least if I try to use it efficiently). So my summer goal is to try to give this site a go and see where it takes me.

EarthFrisk

http://earthfrisk.com/index.php

This is a site that has topics like politics, entertainment, business and humor. It is a social network and has different group options. One can vote on the different topic articles just like Digg. It also has a blog.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF WRITTEN WORD ~ Chapter 2

Blogs are taking over the written world. The different media industries all have blogs. Samsung has a blog, New York Times has a blog called the City Room …

The different media industries have different reasons to blog. They blog to find out what customers expect from their products or just to get a feedback overall so they can improve. Here is the link to the Samsung blog.

http://www.samsungblog.co.za/

People blog on different issues such as presidential campaigns, world issue news, or something as simple as everyday life issues. Blogging allows people to express their thoughts and opinions through writing; people have written conversations on blogs.

http://www.jussayit.com/

Blogging for a Greener World

In Chapter 2, Levinson touches upon the power that blogs have to “influence something real in the world” (Levinson, 46). I found a wonderful example of a blog that serves to do just that. Sustainablog is “blogging a greener world.” This site provides news and inspiring stories about people, businesses, and non-profit organizations that are dedicated to making a greener world. Sustainablog allows individuals to shop through an extensive collection of eco-friendly products. It also suggests ways that we can make greener decisions in our everyday lives.

Blogger, Max Gladwell, posted “Ten way to Change the World Through Social Media” on Sustainablog. He touches upon Levinson’s point on “long-range blogging” (Levinson, 26). Gladwell comments that social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. have “a global reach with viral capacity, and yet it’s bringing local communities closer together.” Organizations and CEOs are beginning to acknowledge that these interactive and social networks are powerful tools that enable people to make a difference like never before. Gladwell elaborates on ten different ways to promote awareness, fund-raising, green jobs, eco-friendly products, etc. through different types of social media including, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, JustMeans, Hugg.com, “Make The Difference Network,” Alonovo, PlayGreen.org, Ning, SocialVibe, and UStream.tv.

Sustainablog and Gladwell’s post are just two inspiring examples of ways in which blogging can work to change the world.

Transcendent

As Levinson states, all new new media transcend both space and time. This is something truly remarkable. As humans, death is inevitable, but with the advent of new new media, death is quite different. "YouTube, in other words, has robbed death of some of its meaning..." says Levinson.

Levinson provides several great examples of some celebrities whom have been kept alive after their death thanks to YouTube. He points out the tribute to Roy Orbison in the song "End of the Line," where his guitar is placed on a rocking chair during when he carried the lead. George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" still lives on in various versions despite his death. YouTube will make sure great musical artists live on in one way or another (Warning: This could also mean that terrible music lives on, but that's a matter of opinion).

For the most part, Levinson focuses on music, but YouTube can preserve several other celebrities, in particular athletes. Throughout YouTube there are highlights of Allen Inverson, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan which could be fascinating for future sports' fans to watch. When discussing great players from your generation compared to great players of future generations, YouTube becomes extremely valuable.

Mutually Catalytic

New new media add to the already competitive world of media for our attention much like Charles Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest. Print threatened the spoken word and television threatened radio. Although print media had a profound effect on our memories it gave us the ability to save our history and narratives for future generations. Radio also survived due to the recording industry as most actors and actresses moved from radio to television. The evolution of older media to new formats allows for its survival. As print and television benefitted older media, so will new new media benefit new and older media today.

Blogging and YouTube threaten newspapers and television as they each compete for our time. However, when a blogger or a YouTube video becomes famous enough it could end up on another medium. For example, "Julie and Julia" tells the story of how a blogger became very successful in the medium of cinema. In addition, when we finish our blog or upload our YouTube video, we can use widgets as a way to get the word out quickly by posting a link to our Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter pages. All these media can benefit each other, despite some of the negative effects they may have on older media.

Iran and Blogging

To add to the previous post on our blog by Sheena, Facebook and Censorship in Iran, here is a short video called Iran: A Nation of Bloggers:



IRAN: A Nation Of Bloggers from ayrakus on Vimeo.

The Skill of Blogging

In New New Media by Paul Levinson, there is a discussion considering the power of blogging. Not only does the experience bring excitement and a feeling of importance to the blogger, but also the feedback can be immensely rewarding. Having read the chapter discussing blogging, it gives me a new view of the phenomenon.

I have personally only blogged as a part of class last semester and this semester and have never really seen the true lure of the practice. I'm sure for people who have influence or great knowledge of a certain area or topic, blogging can be a great tool for them as Levinson suggests. I have become more and more tempted to create a blog, but remain unsure of what I could ever offer the internet community because it would otherwise be pointless to create a site that doesn't help anyone in any way.

Blogging has become a culture of its own world-wide and will continue to grow, the question the blog culture seems to be asking is, can you offer anything with your own?

The Power of Blogging

The optimism and excitement with which Paul Levinson writes about blogging is apparent. He makes the saying "you can make a difference," very believable. In the section "Changing the World with Your Blog," Levinson gives an example of how Joan Walsh, editor of the blog Open Salon and frequent guest on several MSNBC shows, and himself, to a lesser extent, influenced Barack Obama's decision not to delay the debate between himself and Senator John McCain in 2008. Walsh responded to Levinson's blog saying, "Paul Levinson speaks, Obama listens!" Although this may be an exaggeration, it highlights the potential that every blogger has to influence anyone even the President of the United States.

Earlier in the chapter, Levinson discusses several instances in which he received feedback from several actors or from family of the actors who read his blog. Rich Sommer, who plays Harry Crane in AMC's "Mad Men," not only corrected Levinson but expressed his gratitude for Levinson's reviews. A similar exchange took place with Idris Elba, who played Stringer Bell on HBO's "The Wire." Like Sommer, Elba also thanked Levinson and the two shared some musical interests. Levinson also heard from Len Cariou's ("Brotherhood") wife and Aaron Hart's ("Mad Men") father. This must be a rewarding experience for any blogger. Influencing the President and chatting with certain celebrities, which a few years ago was seemingly impossible, are just two prime examples that demonstrate the power of blogging.

The Blogosphere Democracy

Dr. Levinson's chapter on blogging was very interesting. I think the incorporation of his personal experiences with the "new new media" platform definitely enhanced his analysis of the medium. More than that, I think the use of anecdotes was smart way to convey his points, since blogging is a rather recent phenomenon without many measurable, quantifiable effects as of yet.

On page 22, he discusses the democratic nature of blogging, specifically the commenting tool's ability to "serve not only as a voice of the people but as conveyors of truth and correction," "epitomizing the democratic alternative to expert-driven information." In many ways blogging is a much more democratic than the traditional publishing and journalism industries: the opinions of everyday people can be heard, not just the contributors to the WSJ or New York Times editorial pages; there is no editor posing judgment or directing the content in any way and there are little to no monetary-based advertiser interest to keep in mind. Individuals are empowered by their ability to contribute to the world and influence society in some small way. Because of new new media, the monarchy-like hierarchy of traditional publishing has, in many ways, been overthrown.

On the surface, this seems like a great thing, kind of like when American colonists broke away from England years ago with dreams of a fully participatory democratic state. In the years since then, however, political scientists and ordinary observers have realized that a full-fledged democracy sounds great on paper but lacks realistic application. It is the classic "too much voices drown each other out," in that it is very difficult to get anything accomplished when you need the approval of every single individual. This is why America transitioned to a representative democracy and this may be the eventual fate of the blogsophere.

While the comparison is not exact, I tend to feel that there just may be too many voices posting online and that this influx of voices is actually making decision-making and objective research more difficult. It is becoming harder and harder to decipher what is a news item and what is a blog post even on major news websites, who now run just as many blogs and regular articles. I also really struggled trying to find objective information while writing my senior thesis last semester, constantly evaluating the credibility of online sources. Young people today are being inadvertently trained to resist "the expert" in favor of the "guy in his pajamas," which devalues the hard work and years of dedication the expert has that the latter lacks. Overall, the benefits of blogging are obviously positive, easy to see and exciting to analyze but there are costs and complications which I think also deserve attention.