Saturday, November 15, 2008




woooooo thats my girlfriend KIMBYY

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

bloggin'

A blog as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is a “Web site that contains an online personal journal reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.” In the book Blogging America, Aaron Barlow discusses the issues we may now encounter with the blogosphere rapidly increasing. One major problem that Barlow presents is that blogs are basically too easy to create, and they have no one governing the information in which they are presenting. (p. 36) Even without editors, the information presented on blogs mostly consists of factual information that enriches the knowledge of the visitors.

For our forth essay we were assigned to monitor and post on a blog of our choice. Being an avid New York Jets fan, I choose to monitor Jane McManus’s, Jets Journal. In this blog, Jane McManus provides an interesting perspective that an average Jet fan may not encounter. She attends the daily practices, and gives a diehard fan like myself a description of what each practice is like. She even reports on individual players, speaking about their personal side. This adds a softer touch to her blog. She is not just reporting on the scores, or lead stories. Jane takes the time to speak with the players so that fans on the outside can really learn about the players they love. She even takes time out of her busy day to respond to questions that are left on her blog. She has created a nice following of Jet fans who are interested in up to the minute information about the players and coaches, as well as the major storylines surrounding the team. In my seven days participating in the Jets Journal, there have not been any altercations between visitors, and I believe this to be a healthy, happy blog.

Barlow considers the low level of monitoring that appears on blogs a problem in the blogosphere. If there is no accountability for the information posted, then how will we know if the material is factual? I agree in principal about the issue of lack of supervision on all blogs, but throughout my time participating in blogs I have found that most authors pride themselves on the work in which they produce. There is always be some people that are posting complete garbage with the intent to throw off the norm, but in most cases authors care deeply about the topics they are blogging about. Its really common sense, if you want to have a blog that people come to regularly, and trust the things you are saying it is imperative that your information is up to date and accurate. Barlow makes this statement about bloggers, “they want to be taken seriously within the greater society, not dismissed as weirdo loners in their mothers’ suburban basements.” (p.37) Since starting this class I have thrown myself into the world of blogging. Weekly we have posting either summaries of our readings, or even essays about the topics we are learning about. I truly believe that the writing that I do for my blog is much different then writing I would hand into a teacher for her eyes-only. I almost try to put on this intelligent front, that allows me to appear more scholarly then I really am. I want the people who read my blog to respect my opinion on these issues, and maybe let the things I speak about affect how they feel about the issue. I believe that this feeling applies to many bloggers in the blogosphere, and causes them to act responsibly while blogging.

Blogging is a practice that is growing before our eyes. “Technorati, a blog monitoring service, claimed to be tracking more than 75 million blogs.” (p.35) That is an outrageous number, and it is growing daily. It has become extremely easy to set up a blog, and begin to post on whatever you would like. Many people are worried about the ease of blogging, concerned that without supervision, soon enough the information on these blogs will not be factual. They feel that bloggers will not be responsible enough to post accurate information. Personally I disagree, I feel that blogging can be used however you feel, it is a tool that allows you to create a page and contribute to the blogosphere however you choose. I truly believe that the people posting on blogs really care about there face and want to be respected. Therefore even without editors, the information presented on blogs mostly consists of factual information that enriches the knowledge of the visitors.



Barlow, Aaron. Blogging @merica: The New Public Sphere. CT.: Praeger Publishers, 2008. (Chapter 2)

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

reading for wed

In today’s reading entitled “Shout into the wind, and it shouts back,” by Lori Kendal the author speaks about the topic of Live Journal. LiveJournal is place where people can write down their thoughts, and it allows you to view others pages as well. The reading speaks about issues of private journal vs. public performance, efficiency vs. audience management, control vs. connection, and autonomy vs. the desire for comments. These are all issues that come into play when talking about blogs and LiveJournal. The author talks about all of these issues in depth, and makes logical conclusions about them.

I wanted to take some time and talk about the first issue discussed in the book, private journal vs. public performance. I think that this is very important part of the difference between a journal and a blog. In ones personal journal they tend it write very self-centered things. They talk about things that are very superficial, and not meant for anyone else’s eyes. Many times they would even be embarrassed if someone else read the entry. On a blog, or LiveJournal their work is out there so they want to put out a good front. They want their friends and family who read these LiveJournal’s to respect what they are saying. There are also different people who use LiveJournal for different reasons. They might not be posting about themselves, or their family, they could be speaking as a fictional character. You really can be whoever you want to be on these platforms of speaking. Before this class I never really knew about blogs, and I really think that they can be beneficial to people. Sometimes when you are feeling down, writing what’s bothering you down is a good thing to do. I know that I am thinking about opening a private blog just to air myself out sometimes.

Kendall, Lori. (2007). “Shout into the wind, and it shouts back.” Identity and interactional tensions on LiveJournal. First Monday, 12. Retrived on August 21, 2008 from http;//www.firstmonday.org/issues.issue12_9/kendall/index.html

New York Jets Blog

THE BLOG THAT I HAVE BEEN OBSERVING AND COMMENTING ON IS......jets.lohudblogs.com/

Jets Post

Today’s blog was about how the Jets signed long time cornerback of the New England Partriots Ty Law. Ty law was a member of the Jet for a couple of years, and then moved on to the Chiefs. This is very interesting bringing him in the week we play the Patriots, and there is a very good possibility that he will play. This is also seen as a move to mentor the young cornerbacks that the Jets have. He is a crafty veteran, and will show the young guys some tricks to the position. She also spoke about the relationship that Law has with our star corner Darrell Revis. They both grew up in the same town, and played for the same high school football team. There families are still very tight, and this is another example of information that you would not normally get from the newspaper. Again there was some audio from Ty Law, and other teammates about his pick up. I have commented a bunch of times on these blog posts, and there doesn’t seem like there is much discussion about the comments. Sometimes another reader writes something in response, but only one time she responded to the comments. I responded about how excited I was to have Ty Law as a Jet again.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Jets Blog 4

At halftime of the game she got onto her computer and blogged about the first half. It turns out the Jets did extremely well in the first half and were leading the Rams 40-0. She talked about some of the statistics that the players had, and how well the defense played. She then followed up her halftime post by creating a blog for the end of the game. This blog consisted of little clips of the player’s press conferences after the game. One thing that I really enjoy about this blog is that she actually puts up the Audio from the interview so you can listen yourself. I don’t know where else I would go to try to find the whole press conference. She ended the day with a very short post talking about the job security of the kicker, because our star kicker in coming back from injury any day now.

jets blog 3

On gameday she posted again about the inactives for the day, and she spoke about how we have two games in four days. She focused on how we should have had an ever better record if we didnt blow the game against Oakland in overtime. I am assuming that there will be a lot of commenting about the game, and about the next game that we have coming up.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

post 2

Today I logged back on to see if there were any new blog entries, or if there were any comments on the past couple new blogs that had no responses. To my surprise she didn’t not blog today, it is possible that she doesn’t blog on Saturdays. There were some comments on the posts from the other day about Kerry Rhodes and the haircuts that are Friday afternoon rituals. Most of the comments were making fun of the Jets “Flight Crew,” which is the cheerleading team on the Jets. Another post about a WR named David Clowney was commented on, talking about the concussions of Lavernanues Coles has had and when will it be time to give him the week off to rest and let Clowney play.

There is some really insightful information being spoken about on this blog, and it all stems from the actual blogger being knowledgeable on the subject. She sets the tone for the blog, and has a real interest in the New York Jets.

Friday, November 7, 2008

New York Jets Blog

I have chosen to observe the New York Jets blog called The Jets Journal, by Jane McManus of the Journal News. She posts about two times a day, talking about the New York Jets, and things that are going on this week with the team. What I really enjoy about this blog is she talks about the information that does not make it to the press. There was a story today about how Kerry Rhodes has a barber that he has taken from Long Island, over to New Jersey where the Jets practice facility now is. Also, it showed how many people on the team even go to his house after practice to hang out, bond, and get haircuts. This is a nice insight that Jet fans do not usually read. She also had a great piece on the new defensive tackle Kris Jenkins and his tattoos. There should more information, and this type of stuff should be more information about these great stories. Another great thing about this blog is that she is also very up to date on the injuries of the Jet players. She updates the blog daily speaking of who was practicing, information that is not usually released to the public.

There have been no discussions about the posts yet, but I am going to go back a couple days to see what was previously discussed.