The Beginning of the Beginning is... Blogging?

After a fantastically rousing Language of Media lecture, here I am; Green as they come. In all honesty, I have had a blog before. Once upon a time I would write vague verses and so-so short stories. I stopped writing in it ages ago and only go back to giggle at my girly-ness. I would link to it, as support for the argument to be made that when I was between the ages of 15 and 16 I was somewhat boy crazy and emotional, but that action calls upon bravery I don't readily posses. By all means, feel free to use your imagination in its place.

The idea of participatory journalism or "we media" as some people call it is a defining characteristic of the world we are living in. Before citizen journalism, we were all fed news and current events through word of mouth, then newspapers took over the role, followed by radio, then television. Those forms of media were created for the original purpose of keeping people informed about the world around them. After a while of course (or should I say, "in no time"), those mediums evolved and the information relayed through them became more and more biased. Depending on where you life, what channels you watch/listen to, you can be sure that you are getting one side of the story. Only one.

In today's world, there are many new mediums that have been created (as well as old ones that have been taken over) to reflect that the every-day-person-next-door thinks. The world wide web acts as a foundation to virtually all forms of "We Media." As soon as people were able to synthesize their own fibers on that web, they have used it to communicate. The creation of websites, such as YouTube, have allowed uploaded home-made videos to reach millions of viewers. Creation of Podcasts have allowed every-day people to broadcast their own radio-free shows over the net. As well, web logs have allowed for people to post their own written ideas for networks of other people to read.

From all of this, I have gathered that not only do regular-every-day people have ideas but a lot of them want to share them. As a result, there are now a wide variety of ways those people can share their ideas. Newspapers are often distributed within one community. Radio band-widths limit their transmissions too. Even some television channels can only broadcast to people within a certain radius. The internet on the other hand is a global vessel, through which anyone can reach anyone else on the planet (granted they, too, have access to the internet). The possibilities are endless!

Whether or not this global access is a good or bad thing - only time will tell.