Stylizing Academics

I don't turn to blogs for strictly factual information. I don't turn to blogs for the news or sports scores either. So what are blogs good for then? To me, blogs provide a sort of community atmosphere, bringing people with similar interests together to express their similar (or differing) viewpoints. Blogs can be very accurate and full of facts, but they can also contain false information as well. To me, blogs should be a fun piece of writing for both the writer and the reader. By "fun", I mean blogs should tell a story. Reporters work for the New York Times, and sports announcers will report on the latest football score. Blogs allow for a different facet of information. People can still present an "academic" blog in which they write about factual topics, but I think the "blog atmosphere" allows some flexibility in their writing. An academic blog may have humor within the writing, or pictures or videos may be incorporated into the text as well. I don't think this takes away from the writing at all; moreover, I believe that an academic blog can provide very good information and opinions about specific(or non specific) topics to an interactive community.

I read through three blogs in order to assess the "academicness" of them. I found that a "belief" in the author is very important. By this I mean that the author must be credible in their blog posts in order for the blog to be understood as an academic piece of writing. The tone in the writing is also a key for the blog to be perceived as an academic blog. A fairly good use of grammar and sentence use by the author is important as well. I think the depth of thought varies between blogs, but to me, an academic blog should get the reader thinking about the topic in a different way. I don't think there's anything wrong with giving one's opinion when writing a blog about a serious topic, or even adding a comical comment here or there, but if an author can get the reader to think about what they're saying, or better yet, question what they're saying, then the blog seems academic to me. Blogs are part of the digital age, and I believe any form of reference only adds to the sound structure of a good academic blog. Citing a certain book and adding a link to a few pdf file sample pages is always a nice touch. Or adding a picture to visually demonstrate what the author is talking about also adds a sense of truth to an academic blog. The idea is to get the reader to believe what one is writing about. In this day and age, the use of multimedia is almost necessary to keep the reader interested, and citing one's sources through hyperlinks and pictures keeps the faith of one's readers.

For example, I read Josep Colomer's blog and immediately saw on the right of his blog a quick bio of him that informed me that he was a professor. I read through a few of his blog posts, and most of them were simply words in paragraphs regarding politics and the economy. His tone in his blog posts was very formal, and he actually had a "works cited" end note on a few blogs that displayed his references in none other than MLA format. I think a hyperlink to the book might have been sufficient. Also, although his blog lacks in multimedia use, the font and background colors of his blog also seem to state, "Take me seriously!". The font is normal, black text on white background, and a picture of a guy in a suit. Overall, the blog seems like a good example of an academic blog, but it seems to lack in the core features of what a blog can be with the use of multimedia. Where is the style?

I also looked at the David Bordwell's website on cinema. His blog was much less straight forward than Josep's blog. The author gave a quick summary of films he had seen, and then he followed the summary with his thoughts on the film. His use of proper grammar and inserts of personal opinion give him a sense of authority. His tone seems to say that he is an experienced film viewer. He asks the reader questions to ponder which not only gets the reader thinking, but keeps them intrigued as well. The author incorporated several images from each of the films which was a good use of multimedia. I think it was also good that the author put the images before the written portion of the post because it allows the reader to make a personal opinion or thought merely from the image, and then it makes the reader think when the author's synopsis is given after the image. Once again, the blog layout and background colors are not out of the ordinary, which I think enforces the idea that this blog should be taken seriously. In terms of citing his sources, the author merely mentions the films and their years. Perhaps he could add links to information regarding the films from an accredited source to support his blog posts more.

Finally, I looked at the Art(h)ist'ry blog. This blog was by far my favorite due to the nice blend of text, images, and blog layout. Immediately upon entering the blog site, the reader can see that this blog is "kept up" well, and thought is put into each post. The layout of this blog is important. This particular blog has the title of the blog which clearly states that this blog is about art, but also has a play on words regarding art which suggests that this isn't just a newspaper story about the current art gallery downtown. The focus of the blog site is the blog itself which has black and white text among very high resolution pictures. On each side of the blog are boxes that have blog history, links, and the author's own photographs. This last fact adds to the author's authority because it shows that the author has experience and a genuine interest in what the topic of writing is about. I am not an "artsy" type person, but I thought this blog did a nice job interesting people that don't have any experience with art. The author presents a quick sentence on why they are writing on the following image and provides a link to the original reason for the blog post (newspaper article, book, etc.) The author then gives their opinion on the image. I think this is a great example of what an academic blog is in the digital age. The author presents the topic in an interesting way, both visually with the images, and with the text. The author asks the reader questions to ponder, and also sometimes leaves an image at the end of a post without a particular reason. I think this is very important in intriguing the audience, and it also promotes deep thoughts on the topic as well. The author of the art blog allows themselves to get creative with their blog, but still manages to keep a serious, "academic" tone throughout their postings.

Each blog is interesting in its own way. I believe the key to an academic blog is to present the material in an interesting way, but still have a tone of authority that forces the reader to think critically about what they're reading. The use of visual multimedia is also important, and the placement of the images can also intrigue and create an understanding of what the author is writing about. The layout and color scheme also convey a sense of "academicness" to a blog. Overall, every component contributes to how a blog is perceived by its reader. If one can blend both creativity and a sense of reliability into a blog, I believe the result is a good academic blog.