Week 1: What is the biggest issue facing blogging, citizenship and the future of media?

Blogging is a means of self-expression. It is a way for people to freely voice out their opinions, without feeling threatened by some high order authority. A blog entry usually consists of a title, headline, body, post date, comments, tags, and more. You can create a blog on whatever topic you like, use the template you want, and write in it when you want. Nearly all blogging sites offer registration for free and are accessible to all. This idea of a world where there are no boundaries motivates and gives people confidence to share their innermost views about absolutely anything! You can vent to the world, write about things that you care about, discuss your life, there is no limitation. However, lack of regulation or control could pose a potential problem for the readers. Issues surrounding credibility and accuracy of information are questionable. For example, if someone were to write “the suicide rate in Japan has risen from 45% to 75%” without sourcing anything, I would not consider this information credible. They are not credible in a sense that they do not have solid data to back up their information. Now, if the author is however a journalist or a person in the fields of research, it is easy to assume that their information is accurate because of their credibility as a person. There is ambiguity between credible factual information and credibility of the actual person and opinions or beliefs stated by people in general.

Furthermore, blogging removes boundaries for both time and space. Blogging breaks geographical boundaries. Blogs can be accessed by anyone around the world. However, many question the extent of the freedom users have within their blog. Is it really a limitless world? Those living in communist countries like China, people may be less inclined to blog freely because of fear from government. The goverment censors and filters information provided and there is an unequal flow of information between other counties and China. Therefore, technological change or emergence of other devices for self-expression does not neccesarily come with equal growth in freedom of expression for all.