Blogging and the Media.

Personally, I have been running my own lifestyle blog for almost two years now, so blogging is something that I thoroughly enjoy (although it has it’s moments!). Blogs encompass a range of ideas from an individual person – think of it as an online diary. With this, comes responsibility such as consistency and keeping a record of your private identity offline. Blogging can come in many shapes or forms; political blogs, lifestyle blogs, food blogs, pet blogs, personal blogs… you name it, there is a blog for it. Technically speaking, blogs are a web-based publication run by a CMS (a ‘hoster’ for the domain such as WordPress or Blogpost) so you can customise your own themes, posts, layout and domain name, making the blog your own. This is important in something such as education (eg: the blog I am writing on now), where personalisation can make it your own little space on the internet to write, hence, using it as a form of motivation to continue. The trap, however, with blogging, is using it as a ‘routine chore’ – as said in the reading of “Blogs in Media Education”; productive blogging is not a literary piece – it should have flair and represent a bit of yourself without becoming just a simple routine.

Owning a blog has many positive attributes, particularly in the education sector – it can have a reflection for peer learning, support, records of one’s achievements, development of a range of literacy and editing skills and collaboration between individuals. This blog can also be recognized by a larger community of individuals, not only those who are attending RMIT, for example. This also poses the idea of online identity and the importance of safekeeping this – most employers, for example, google prospective employees before hiring them and if this reputation is tarnished, it can have a disastrous effect on the individual. Blogs can also be incredibly time consuming and can often be seen as a ‘chore’ rather than a form of enjoyment, so you have to get the right balance.

Blogs have had a shift in communication over a number of years, moving into media culture instead of influencers being strictly print journalists or celebrities.

 

 

 

 

www.freshlypikked.com

@freshlypikked

“Freshly Pikked” by Chessie

 

A blogger I have read for a number of years and admire greatly is Chessie, from FreshlyPikked. Chessie has been blogging for a number of years now (fun fact: she was the first one to introduce me to blogging – she was the first blog I found!) and I have enjoyed watching her content change over time. I think her blog works well because of her mixture of media; both writing and photography (both film and DSLR) as well as the clean layout that is easy to navigate. Her writing style is precise (not rambling on) but also shows her personality as well.

Links to her social media accounts on the right-hand side of the page are also well designed and easy to find (something that I did not have in my first layout of my personal blog, for example). I think her combination of writing consistently and also posting on other social medias (instagram is a big one) attract an audience. I also know she has been interviewed and featured in some magazines, which would also help in gaining traction in blogging – which I think is one of the hardest feats in the task.