1,2,3...Blogs I See!!

In chapter 7 of Brian Carroll's book, he discusses the different kinds of blogging. This is an element I hadn't fully thought about before reading this chapter. Carroll says that blogs fall into three categories:

1. Personal Blogs

2. Corporate Blogs

3. News Blogs

Now, before embarking on this wonderful journey of Digital Communication Class, I thought there was one kind of blog: personal blogs. However, I now see these three different types and the different purposes they serve. 

Personal blogs are individualized, typically focused on a certain interest of the blogger, and usually more conversational in tone.

Corporate blogs have one big goal: to keep their consumers updated on all things going on in their company. These blogs are also good for developing trust between the corporation and the consumer. Corporate blogs help to develop this trust by speaking plainly and humanizing the company. Another way to help build trust is by not directly trying to sell anything to people reading the corporate blog.

News blogs focus on what happened and are centered around factual events. This is the kind of blog that can sway into the category of journalism because it follow a particular method of verification.

Since I have joined this class, I have decided to embrace the world of blogging. I just started a Bloglovin account and follow blogs in each of these different categories. I am really enjoying seeing their different goals, tones, and approaches to blogging. Personally, I think I am partial to the personal blogs!

K.I.S.S. and Be Smart!!

Hyperlinks

I have always been amazed by hyperlinks! I've wondered how to get them and how to successfully know when to place a hyperlink. Brian Carroll gives great guidelines to hyperlinks, here is what I found to be most important:

1.  Hyperlinks should be obvious

2. Hyperlinks should be explicit about what they lead to- readers should know exactly what they are going to be redirected to

3. Hyperlinks should be consistent in appearance- all the hyperlinks in an article should be different from the regular text, but should all be the same color and size as other hyperlinks

Headlines

One things that Brian Carroll has made abundantly clear in all his advice about digital media is to live by KISS: Keep it Simple Stupid!!! Carroll directly applies this to headlines and sub-headlines. The readers should be able to look at a headline or sub-headline and get the main point of the following information. This allows for easy scanability in an article, and helps to keep the readers attention engaged. 

Journalism of Verficiation

In the following writing, Journalism of Verification, the author essentially discusses the importance of being objective, transparent, and honest when being a journalist. The author discusses the importance of not assuming and using credible sources. I think this is very important to being a successful and effective journalist. One example right away that I though of is the difference in journalism between a magazine like People Magazine, where the verifiability of the magazine is high and the journalism presented in it is high versus that of a magazine like The Enquirer. Both magazines are reporting on celebrity or popular media stories, but one is more verifiable due to direct interviews and noted sources, and another is sheer speculation and lies.

Be an Effective Blogger!!

In chapters two and three off Brian Carroll's Writing for Digital Media, Carroll discusses how to makes a web page be successful. He talks about many elements that contribute to a good, informative, and easy to read page or blog. Writing for digital media is completely different then writing for analog media. Although certain principles apply to both, how the author communicates is so different. 

Carroll talks about the importance of credibility, accountability, identity. I found the idea or credibility and identity to be particularly important especially pertaining to blogs. Carroll does state that there is no widely accepted definition of credibility, but words like "believability" are commonly used. The way I see it, credibility pertaining to digital media means the ability to knowledgeably communicate information to the readers without too much personal opinion and/or bias. When talking about identity, Carroll talks about how when people are viewing web pages, especially blogs, they want to see a common interest or link between them and the author. This identity makes the author less of a distant computer robot and more of a person that the viewer can relate to. The importance of both of these elements are also supplemented with the need to design a functional, easy to use, and visually stimulating page. The resources that are available to users on the web are significantly larger then those who are writing a book. Color, links, pictures, and videos are all wonderful elements that can add dimension and layers to a web page. One thing Brian Carroll said in chapter three that I think is very true is that if a page doesn't load, link doesn't connect, or video doesn't start in three seconds, the viewer doesn't stick around. It is important to remember as a blogger now to check all those details, because if something isn't functioning properly or effectively it can turn away viewers from what information you are trying to communicate.

Question: Keeping in mind the importance of credibility and identity, do you think it would be difficult to establish both these element in a blog?

My answer: I feel like it is definitely a challenge to establish both credibility and identity with a blog. In one sense, you want to state your opinions and you probably already have your biases regarding certain topics, and in a lot of ways these opinions and thoughts can come across as identity. However, if you push those too far or don't present the whole story you lose credibility. To sum it up, I think it is very possible, just hard to walk that line and keep things credible and relateable!