Blogging answers

Blogging: What is it?

1) What motivates people to create blogs?
It’s an opportunity for people to write about what they care about, what they know about, and react to things that are happening in their communities.

2) Do bloggers have ethical responsibilities for accuracy?
Because blogs tend to be a large majority of people’s personal views, bloggers do not have ethical responsibilities for accuracy, but should follow moral principles to not knowingly spread false information.

3) Has the blog made an impact on how people use the web? Do blogs encourage a more participative culture and collective intelligence online?
The blog has definitely made an impact on how people use the web. Blogging has enabled the common citizen to become grassroots journalists and communicate to traditionalists and politicians about what matters most to them. Blogging has encouraged merging between traditional journalists and bloggers which has created a participatory culture. Because bloggers have access to more information collectively, this has enriched the collective intelligence that happens among bloggers and between bloggers and journalists.

4) How is the blog an example of digital convergence?
The blog exemplifies digital convergence as it combines traditional journalism, the web, and letter writing.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Blog

1) What are the ethical implications of blogs? Should people be mindful of offensive content?
Because bloggers are note legally mandated to prove their stories are correct, they can influence the opinions of the public with their opinions if they pose them as fact on their blogs. Although I believe in the freedom of speech, I believe people should be mindful of offensive content because not everyone is comfortable with profanity and people should not use blogs to attack people’s character.

2) Does blogging elicit civic and community engagement? Or, does blogging draw the blogger into the online world and away from the community?
Blogging definitely elicits civic and community engagement. Like Rockville Central, blogs encourage feedback from the citizens of the community they focus on. Blogging doesn’t draw the blogger away from the community on the contrary it encourages the blogger to monitor the community more closely.

3) Should the administrator of the blog have the right to edit posts by others? Does this make the blog less authentic?
The administrator should have the right to edit or delete posts in order to maintain the integrity of the blog, but unfortunately it does make it less authentic. Instead of editing, it would be best to just delete entries that violate the terms of participating in the blog.