Conventional Arguments

I looked over four blogs in four of the following categories: Lifestyle, News/Politics, Science/Technology, and Arts/Entertainment. In the lifestyle category I looked at the Sartorialist, in the News/Politics category, I looked at Hot Air, in the Science/Technology section I looked at Mac Rumors, and in the Arts/Entertainment category I looked at Perez Hilton. It seems that each of these blogs has a specific purpose or theme. It may not be academic in any sense, but some of them are popular. So I think the overall question really becomes: what makes a blog work? What brings people back to read these blogs over and over again? The answers to these questions have to do with the conventions, the use of text and image, an overall argument, and the interactivity between author and reader.

In regard to conventions, it seems that each of these blogs have quite a large following, so perhaps they have similar conventions as well? One convention among each blog is the clear topic each blog has. In other words, each blog has a clear argument in which the author continually keeps the blog focused upon. The Sartorialist's focus is on fashion, Hot Air is focused on news and politics catered to each specific reader, MacRumors focuses on technology news specific to the Apple company, and Perez Hilton focuses on celebrity focus. Also, each of the blogs, with the exception of Mac Rumors utilize images as a central focus in their blogs. Hot Air uses images to encourage readers to choose the topic of the blog, The Sartorialist contains only pictures with a title, and Perez Hilton's blog incorporates many images which usually have comical written comments over them. Mac Rumors doesn't incorporate many images, but I think their goal as a blog is less focused on the visual, and rather more focused on factual text.

Another thing I noticed among each of the blogs is related to their focused argument as well. Due to the fact that each blog seems to have a clear topic or theme, the intended audience is very important to each blog. Moreover, the blog's audience is what fuels the blog's success. One way an audience helps contribute to the author's purpose of the blog is through comments. This participatory realm of blogging is what truly makes blogs "work" in my opinion. Hot Air readers and Mac Rumors readers seem to comment with more thought than reader comments on the Sartorialist and Perez Hilton blogs. I don't mean to offend anyone with this last comment, but to me, I think the topic of the blogs facilitate the thought process that goes into comments by readers. Now there are a few very thoughtful comments on Perez and The Sartorialist, but I think the mere fact that both of those blog's argument is more focused on opinion and the personal viewpoint of either fashion(in the case of the Sartorialist) or celebrity gossip (in the case of Perez Hilton), while Hot Air catalizes comments, sometimes furious (perhaps not intelligent, but thought provoking) comments regarding politics and news. Mac Rumors initializes comments on Apple news and technology. All in all, comments are being made which means the blogs are achieving their purpose. Each blog has a purpose, an argument. Readers react to the postings, whether their comments make sense or not, something of a thought is provoked by the blogs, and interactivity is followed.