Blogging

The interviews with Stephen Mayne and Trevor Barr were recorded for the website From Wireless to Web, produced in 2005.

Stephen Mayne was the founder and editor of independent news service crikey.com. You can view their full biographies at From Wireless to Web Trevor Barr is an author, professor and the Director of the Creative Industries Research & Applications Centre at the Queensland University of Technology.

The website is a selective history of broadcast media in Australia. Decade by decade, from radio and newsreels to TV and the internet, this history shows how the Australian broadcast media developed and shaped the way Australians see themselves.

From Wireless to Web is a Film Australia production in association with Roar Film.

Area of study 3. New media

This area of study focuses on the social consequences of the emergence of new media technologies. The creative implications of new media technologies are considered in the context of the capabilities of the technologies, their relationship with existing media, how they provide alternative means of representation and distribution of media products. Their cultural significance is investigated in terms of how they challenge and alter our perception of the world through the media products that can be produced and consumed, and the changes, possibilities and concerns that may arise in society.

Technological advancements in the media occur within the context of the society in which they are created, developed and used. Such developments therefore, not only affect media products themselves but also change the processes involved in production, distribution and consumption. In many instances they may also influence the nature of the reality (the event) being depicted by the media; for example, digital imaging techniques have allowed the manipulation (that is altering, distorting, mutating and reshaping) of photographic representations. The convergence of new media technologies, digitisation, computerisation and high-speed data transfer create new pathways for the transmission, exchange and storage of both existing and new forms of information and entertainment. Issues such as ownership, copyright, privacy and access gain new significance in terms of the relationship between media technology and the circulation of representation.

This material is an extract. Teachers and Students should consult the Victoria Curriculum and Assessment Authority website for more information.

The advent of the World Wide Web radically changed the online experience. At last information could be interpreted and displayed in a standardised form across the vast 'web’ of different computer networks. Cyberspace was transformed, appearing as a seamless global information system, enabling users anywhere to search, browse and interact. Now the Internet and Web are redefining the nature of human communication, and challenging traditional limits to human relationships and communities.

Blogging
The advent of the Internet means that anybody can 'broadcast’ from home to a potential audience of one billion other Internet users. The Internet also enables readers to respond to such broadcasts.

The word 'blog’ comes from 'weblog’, meaning a signed and dated log of postings by an individual. Some bloggers simply post writing to their blog for people to read. Others make their blog an interactive experience. Interactive weblogs can allow a reader to add their comments to the blog which can escalate into conversations amongst readers and the blogger. Lately, some bloggers have become well-known commentators on the political scene. But blogging can encompass any topic or no topic at all. Some bloggers distribute their postings to other web pages or to readers directly.

Blogs illustrate the way that traditional broadcast media have been disrupted by the Internet. In theory anyone can become a published and recognised authority on the Web, because the barriers of entry to traditional broadcasting do not exist online. The Internet has no direct equivalents to news editors, producers, station managers and owners – the 'gatekeepers’ of content for radio and television.

Bloogz.com is both a blog search engine, and a website that ranks the popularity of blogs. Estimates for the number of active blogs worldwide range between 2.4 million and 2.9 million.

Answer the following questions from the Video Clip Context and the video clip itself:

1. The traditional broadcast media filters the news. What do you think the advantages and disadvantages of this filtering might be?
2. Where does Trevor Barr see a role for blogging and the Internet? What does he see as the strengths of blogging?
3. Do you have a blog are do you read or access blogs? If you have or do, why do you? If you don’t, why not?

Go to From Wireless to Web for more about the history of broadcast media in Australia.

Media Studies Ca. The Paradox of Technology