What criterion does a particular blog need to meet in order to be considered an academic blog? After reviewing several blogs labeled “academic,” I’ve come up with my own understanding of what these criterion may be. For one, academic blogs are organized. Arguably the most noticeable similarity between all of these blogs was the fact that they had categories and archives. Both of these factors allow for easy navigation of any given blog. Another obvious factor is the more professional writing these bloggers exhibit in comparison to non-academic blogs. Although the blogger’s opinion comes through in his or her writing, the personal relationship that Andrew Sullivan discusses in his article Why I Blog is not seen to the same extent. Academic blogs have more of a defined purpose, discussing a particular topic such as art or politics. Non-academic blogs don’t necessarily have a particular theme throughout; instead they are more similar to the very public diary of the blogger. Because of this, the academic blogger does not express himself/herself to as great of an extent. Another part of the academic blog that stands out to me is the presence of Comment Policies. Crooked Timber has a Comment Policy that states
We welcome comments from readers on posts, but you do so as guests in our private space. Concepts of ‘censorship’ are not applicable. If your comments are blatantly racist, sexist or homophobic we will delete them and ban you from the site. The same goes for comments which are personally defamatory or insulting or which seek to derail a thread through provocation of one kind or another.
However, in addition to these observations, I’ve also noticed that academic blogs differ in content as well as format. That is, the majority of the academic blogs in question included blog posts from several different contributors. However, some blogs, such as art(h)ist’ry and BollySpace 2.0, have only one blogger. While some academic bloggers are distinguished professors, other academic bloggers such as in the Intro to Politcal Theory Blog are students learning about the topic in discussion themselves. Also, some blog homepages, such as Crooked Timber, Front Porch Republic and Public Reason, included only excerpts of blog posts, linking the reader to another page in order to continue reading the entire post; other homepages, like that of art(h)ist’ry, Intro to Politcal Theory Blog, Observations on Film Art, Sweetland and BollySpace 2.0, displayed full posts, allowing the viewer to read them in their entirety. Furthermore, there does not seem to be a certain length that a post has to meet in order to have its place in an academic blog. For example, art(h)ist’ry contained relatively short posts with a lot of photographs. Perhaps the academic blog that stands out the most in comparison to the other blogs is Front Porch Republic. The format of this blog can be more closely associated with that of an online newspaper than the format of most other blogs. All of these variances between different academic blogs leave for a fuzzy understanding of the term as a whole.
Even my current understanding has left me with many unanswered questions. For example, Andrew Sullivan spoke greatly about the unfinished fashion of a blog; the raw emotion, the time constraints that don’t allow for over-thinking or very much editing. If this is what makes a blog unique from other forms of journalism, then where does an academic blog fit in with all of this? An academic blog is expected to be well thought out. For the most part the reader seeks creditable facts as opposed to opinion and speculation, although both of these factors have their place within academic blogs. Another key characteristic of a blog is the interactive nature between the blogger and reader. To what extent does this interactive aspect prevail in the academic blogosphere? These are just a few of the many remaining questions that linger in my mind after evaluating several academic blogs.
http://www.masternewmedia.org/online-collaborative-writing-how-blogs-and-wikis-are-changing-the-academic-publishing-process/
Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post; I think it brought up many interesting points that can be discussed. First, I think it’s very interesting how some of the “academic blogs” have comment policies that work to keep inappropriate posts off the blogs. Although the intentions of these policies seem good, I think they are also a way to try to root out less educated people from the blog who may just be looking to start arguments. I also thought it was very interesting how almost all of the academic blogs had “blog rolls.” I think that these are good ways for blogs to not only connect their readers to blogs that may be of interest to them, but also to boost their reputation and legitimacy to anyone who may come across the blog. Lastly, I thought another interesting point you made about academic blogs is that they may not follow the rules that Andrew Sullivan put forth about blogging being emotionally raw, loosely edited and done without much thinking. It seems that many of the academic blogs do not follow these rules which in my opinion creates a new question: are academic blogs really blogs?
Taylor,
ReplyDeleteLet me start out by saying I found your post interesting, it made me think differently then i ever have before, but I do have a few comments on your definition. You state that an academic blog needs to be organize, which I agree with, but for devil's advocate sake lets look at the opposite. Say if Albert Einstein had a blog on quantum physics, with hundreds of posts and equations ranging from the speed of light to the atomic weight of a particle but he did not organize it, is it still academic? This is the one frustrating thing i find with New Media, the idea that nothing is defined and everything is up for interpretation.