Drafting!

ABOUT ME: My name is Emma Sacchetti and I’m currently a sophomore at The University of Rhode Island where I am pursuing degrees in both Writing and Rhetoric, and Theater. I hail from Norwalk, Connecticut home of the world’s largest dairy store. My Love for theater has nurtured my curiosity in the human condition.  In theater I explore individual characters, in my blog I hope to take a look at society and its influence on individuals.

Purpose:I am writing this blog as an excuse for me to go more in depth on a topic that really intrigues me.

Blog Descriptions: Feminism and how it applies to this generation of young women.

Draft: I plan to point out the socialital influences that shape our lives. I believe that environment has the power to shape lives and personalities, which explains why we differ from the generation before us. I plan to cover a wide spectrum from the up-coming election to Kim Kardashian’s curves.  Anything that relates to women and what shapes our lives.

Blogging Analysis

I examined both the environmental blogs of  the New York TIme’s and Discovery News. This is what I came up with.

1. Genre Elements: Both blogs are organized into multiple topics which are highlighted by hyperlinks accompanied by cute icons. Both Blogs use authors from all over the world who submit articles electronically. The NY Times relayed mainly on green headings and pictures for aesthetics where Discovery goes further into the graphics, with sparse text and colorful pictures.The articles are short and written more casually then typical journal writing, The comment function and the hyperlinking through the articles characterize the blog.

2. Multi-modalities: The text is consistently accompanied by a picture. The sides of the blog are lined the links to other blogs, top stories, videos and photos. Advertisements are casually placed between links to stories. The NYTimes offers a link to a video archive which, although it does not directly relate to the entry is related to the blog in general. Quotes or phrases are hyperlinked throughout articles to lead to other parts of the blogging website. The articles that accompanied videos, were more of a short description then a stand alone piece. Each article in both blogs seems to have about 9 or 10 comments, some written by followers.   Although the links and pictures which framed the article did add to the overall feeling of the blog only really served to distract me.

3. Visual: Meredith Badger describes in her article “Visual Blogs,” how the internet is designed for gazing.  Both blogging websites are too cluttered for concentrating on one thing but visually engaging enough to gaze at. Hyperlinks to related bogs on different websites or similar posts on the same blog outline the web page,  though the main article remains the focal point.  The web-design shows  the blog is for browsing and skimming, as well as in depth reading. The consistent use of a visual to accompany each title in the blog is what makes the site look nice. Because both blogs cover a serious topic mostly aiming at an adult audience the aesthetics are simple yet very pleasing.

4. The New York Times blog employs the same caliber of writing used for their newspaper. Just like journalistic writers, blogger use quotes and write in the third person formal, though the casual and humorous tone which characterizes bloggers sets them a part from journalists. Also, the length of the pieces 0n both blogs is truly what separates them from what one would see in a newspaper. On the Discovery blog, the pieces are short and sweet all accompanied by a picture, which is usually as lengthy as the piece itself. On the NY Times blog the pieces, though much wordier and less reliant on a picture, are still very short.

My upcoming Blog project focuses on feminism and how it applies to the younger generation of women.  I fear that my generation complacently believes we have achieved all that we can in terms of rights, though I am not willing to settle. My intended audience is women who feel the same way I do and hopefully those with opposing beliefs willing to give my blog a shot. Some Sub topics include, current media, certain women heros, rights, other articles and college life observations.

The authors demonstrated their credibility by citing the source directly by using quotes. Both blogs hyperlinked key phrases within the story that led to other blogs sharing the same story, or to a blog that went into greater depth on that particular phrase. The visual also boasted the authors ethos because the picture always displayed a picture that showed the scene of whatever the story is about.  From what i could glean by looking at the new york times website, their environmental blog’s audience consists of individuals who are not only active environmental activists but who eager to participate in environmental debates. The Blogs employed all times of media, including social media. Both blogs had links that allowed you to share the story on facebook, twitter, or google plus.

After examining the blogs it seems as though blogging websites are an internet hub, incapsulating all trends and modes of communication. What I learned to incorporate into my blog is the emphasis of multimodalities. The text takes a back seat to the other forms of the media that aid telling a story as well.

Blood Blogs’

Remarkably, in the mist of constantly evolving technology, Rebecca Blood’s  12- year old blog entry, “Weblogs: A History and Perspective” still holds true. With blog’s becoming increasing relevant, Blood foresaw the advantages of the web-based media source. In televised and printed media invisible authorities talk at an audience, where blogs invite its audience to join the conversation.  The novelty of the blog is not the information it produces but its interactive nature. Public media, such as blogs, is the next way that technology can bring the world together.

The passive audience, that Blood refers to, looks for media that establishes pre-concieved ideas instead of ones that challenge their own. This opposes the ideal blog audience, an active “public” that play a key role in shaping a blog through their reaction. Instead of long newspaper articles, blogs sway more towards short and sweet leaving room for audience commentary. Even the content of the blog seems inviting, Badger explains how a lot of blogs consist of personal information and despite their mass distribution feel intimate. Even blogs that do not directly talk about its author can seem like public diary entries. Also, the amateur-ish nature of blogs, just scream for outside volunteer fact-checking. Blood states in “Weblog Ethics,” “Weblogs, produced by nonprofessionals, have no such code, and individual webloggers seem almost proud of their amateur status.” No longer just a news source the blog creates an entire community where editors and readers are scattered around the world.

Continuing to Brainstorm!

Blog post numero dos. ALRIGHT. After class, I learned whatever blog topic I choose should take a social, economic or political stance. I am intrigued to how feminism relates to my generation of women. I assosiciate the feminist movement back to the 1960’s and 70’s, so I am curious how the movement has sustained and transformed through time. As a female college student in a world where more and more females are matriculating in school then ever before, i feel this could be a relevant and interesting topic to tackle. How will I explore this theme, you ask? Feminism in the media (i.e. television, music, advertisements, etc…) as well as incorporating my own observations of behavior. How can feminism be applied to the so-called “hook up” culture that is so prominent in this generation of college students? Women’s rights are also in jeopardy if certain political campaigns are followed through. This post would be directly related to my life without writing what would seem like a diary entry. I could go even further and examine figures in popular culture that impact the feminist movement or just female thinking. I am eager to write about this ( EXIGENT, some might say) because while the role of women in the work place, home, school is constantly evolving and writing this blog will not only serve to enlighten myself to these changes but hopefully others.

My other thought for my activist blog is writing about the daily uncertainties of life as a college student. I have had the intention of pursuing acting my whole life, though as my adult life gets closer and closer, I feel the pressure to go into a “practical” field. I mean who hasn’t changed there major at least once? Let’s be serious. This topic to branch into the idea of “Academic Inflation,” which I don’t know about you but is stressing me out! Similar to the inflation that implies to money, bachelor degrees are so commonplace that their value has declined. More and more careers are asking for higher of degrees of education to make up for the lack of significance four years of education hold. How long will it be before a masters degree is equal  in worth to a high school diploma in my parents’ generation. This is also an urgent topic because it holds immediate relevance to any student.  The education system, a huge institution of western civilization, is on the verge of a change which needs to be documented.

Both my blogs are intended for a specific audience; the first for primarily female college students and the second for all college students. I hope by presenting both ideas in an interesting and cheeky fashion, readers would want to come along the journey with me as I set out to learn new things are think more critically about conventions of old systems. As curious I am about exploring these topics I am worried about hitting a road block in my research or not knowing how to research in the most effective way. Of course,  I am worried about sounding stupid or ignorant. I hope I don’t but hopefully research prevents this!  My excitement about the topics trumps the existing doubts I have and am looking forward to getting my thoughts out there.

Process Blog–brainstorm edition

This is my first blog post EVER. So, this as a historical moment. . . basically. This post is an exercise where I spit ball ideas that could potentially become topics in my activist blog. Life is filled with humor, so whatever topic I chose will be a vehicle for some funny. As a theater enthusiast I can tell you the best drama’s always find a way to make us laugh at life’s ironies. Which is why theater is one of the topics I am considered writing about for my blog. When I say “theater” I mean my experiences with auditions (which never fail to provide a funny anecdote), being in plays, watching plays, reading plays, and just talking about how much I LIKE PLAYS. I feel comfortable writing about theater because of my many years of involvement with it. A recent interest, which has manifested from my curiosity in the human condition, is in women’s studies and rights. As I grow into my status as  “women” as opposed to a girl and as my awareness of media manipulation grows more acute, the more interesting and relevant the topic becomes. Another topic  which weighs on the minds of youth and also takes up residence in my own mind 24/7, is– College. Getting a Degree. So called “academic inflation.” Is it worth all that money? Maybe I’m wrong but I think this generation is dealing with a whole slew of issues that our parents are not equipped to help us with.  The burden of choosing (or not) to receive an outrageously expensive education, in a job market where demands for higher (and higher) degrees of eduction are raising and feelings of security are non-existent. These blogs would be aimed at college students and anyone interested in the topic. The later two topics are broad enough to branch out to discuss current political and news events.