I took the “soft” option and read the two recommended readings, as opposed to the one required one.

I found the “Blogs in Media Education” vlog by Adrian Miles particularly interesting.

Adrian highlights the many similarities between blogs and traditional journals, in that they both serve to record “ideas, reflections, activities, things to be done, and so on”. The key difference, however, is that a blog is a public document, and “written with the assumption it has readers.”

It struck a chord with me in that I often publish on my own personal blog, and wrestle with the predicament between writing for others, and writng for myself.

The blog serves essentially as an online journal for myself, and therefore the motivation to write always stems from a desire of personal reflection. Whilst my readership is minute (I don’t believe anyone actually regularly reads my blog – perhaps just occasionally stumbles across it), I do always write with the awareness that is a public document, and I therefore have some level of accountability.

I think this is what makes blogs unique – and probably most appealing. While it’s a public document, it’s often written for personal reasons.

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