Now lets look at blogs that pertain to a variety of different viewers. The Front Porch Republic discusses topics from "Women, The Cosmos, and Cosmetics" to "Art and Community." Although this blog has a satirical tone and all viewers must understand the same humor, the topics of discussion continue to vary. Similarly to the Front Porch Republic Sullivan's blog, The Atlantic, discusses topics that are completely different from one another. For instance one blog he discusses his reaction to 9/11 whereas another blog discusses his views on the War in Iraq, Once again all viewers share a similar interest in Sullivan's honesty and emotion, but overall Sullivan is not writing for a specific audience. He is simply writing about a majority of topics and he does not concentrate on a definite group of people.
Okay now lets backtrack. What is an Academic Blog? Does the information have to be directed to a specific audience such as a group of scientists interested in the same thing or can the blog contain a variety of information for an assortment of different readers whether they are doctors, pilots, or chefs?
OR
Does the Blog have to be only writing about the facts or can Sullivan's blog be considered Academic, writing about his personal opinions about a topic?
After researching Academic Blogs, I came to the conclusion that they are written to provide information to an audience. Having this in mind my major questions have to do with evaluating the information that is being displayed. Can it cover a variety of different topics or should it focus on just one academic topic? Can it be someone's opinion on a subject matter or does it just have to be straight facts? What do you guys think?
(Pictures: http://gettyimages.com, http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/1098 2019, http://languagearts.pppst.com/fact-opinion.html
Articles: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/why-i-blog/7060/, http://arthistorian.wordpress.com/, http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/, http://polsci101.wordpress.com/, )
Rian,
ReplyDeleteI think that your post brings about several important questions. As I was looking through the various blogs, I too wondered if you had to direct your blogging at a specific audience for it to be considered academic. After thinking about it, I think that the answer is yes. According to many of the definitions I have seen, an academic blog must be written by a professor who specializes in a certain area of study. I think this means that in order for the blog to be academic, its content must solely be what the professor specializes in. Although I agree with the second half of the definition, I do not think that blogger needs to be a professor for the blog to be considered academic. I think that Andrew Sullivan is a perfect example of a well educated person who maintains a very sophisticated blog. The controversy surrounding academic blogging and what exactly constitutes an academic blog is something that I believe may never be fully defined.
In addition to what Tyler said I completely agree with his opinion on what an academic blog is. I don't believe the term "academic" necessarily means scholarly or professor, but i do think it requires a level of understanding and knowledge that say a blog ran by a teenager wouldn't have. My question is say Eminem, Jay-Z or another famous artist wrote a blog about rap and the lyrics composing the music, would that be academic? Hypothetically there is no one better to teach rap then the best rapper, but at the same time does modern society consider Eminem someone with the ability to teach the world. This is what i enjoy from academic blogs, the idea that anyone can become the teacher and anyone can become a student, regardless of true knowledge.
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