Blog Review Essay, Part I
Gentle Readers, I ask you this: What constitutes a good blog?
It is more than flashing images and snappy language. Simply providing an audience with sparkling images is nothing without something to back it up. In fact, some blogs do not even need pictures (but with my attention span it does help).
The three criteria I have chosen to focus on are content and audience, voice, and relativity.
For this first entry, I will explain content—what exactly I mean by it, its importance and some various subtexts, such as audience.
The three blogs I have chosen to look to for this essay are Pink is the New Blog, Jackie Harvey’s "Harveywood", and George Thomas’ Movie Spotlight. As with my Genre Analysis, I chose to stay in the field of popular culture and have stuck with Pink is the New Blog. Though they could fall into the same category, each of these blogs tackles content differently.
Generally speaking, by content I mean the body of the work, the flesh of the material. For example, Pink is the New Blog is a daily blog. The content varies daily but deals with the same subject—celebrity gossip. Here, the content is very important because this blog deals with a large audience and the audience comes back for what they want. At the top of the list is content, which then breaks down into varying subgroups I will focus on in another entry.
Jackie Harvey’s “Harveywood,” is at home as a featured portion of The Onion, both online and in print. Like most stories found in The Onion, “Harveywood” is meant to be satirical—the audience, generally the faithfully cynical—should expect nothing less. This blog focuses on varying points of pop culture—celebrity gossip, computer games, media reviews. Here, the content is not exactly what is important, but the way in which the content is presented. The audience needs to know that “Jackie Harvey” is a persona created for The Onion. They need to know that he does not actually care about Britney’s baby or the latest Destiny’s Child CD. One way the writer(s) show this is through misspelling. For example, rather than simply saying, “Along Came Polly was great!” “Jackie” states, “…Sometimes, you're pleasantly surprised and you get a Something About Polly. That movie made me want to buy a ferret for months.” Not only could he be addressing the only thing worthwhile in the film was the ferret, but by combining the titles for Along Came Polly and Something About Mary, he is addressing that not only is he full of it, but most movies starring Ben Stiller are formulaic garbage. Of course, that could just be my reading.
George Thomas’ blog is much more basic than Pink is the New Blog or “Harveywood.” There is no satire or daily update. It is what it says it is—a movie spotlight. If one reads his reviews or articles in The Akron Beacon Journal and for one reason or another decides s/he wants more, they can simply go to The Beacon online and read what does not make it to print. It may not be exciting, but something about its simplicity works. It isn’t pretentious or over-the-top. Like each blog, it is out there to serve its purpose.
Gentle Readers, I ask you this: What constitutes a good blog?
It is more than flashing images and snappy language. Simply providing an audience with sparkling images is nothing without something to back it up. In fact, some blogs do not even need pictures (but with my attention span it does help).
The three criteria I have chosen to focus on are content and audience, voice, and relativity.
For this first entry, I will explain content—what exactly I mean by it, its importance and some various subtexts, such as audience.
The three blogs I have chosen to look to for this essay are Pink is the New Blog, Jackie Harvey’s "Harveywood", and George Thomas’ Movie Spotlight. As with my Genre Analysis, I chose to stay in the field of popular culture and have stuck with Pink is the New Blog. Though they could fall into the same category, each of these blogs tackles content differently.
Generally speaking, by content I mean the body of the work, the flesh of the material. For example, Pink is the New Blog is a daily blog. The content varies daily but deals with the same subject—celebrity gossip. Here, the content is very important because this blog deals with a large audience and the audience comes back for what they want. At the top of the list is content, which then breaks down into varying subgroups I will focus on in another entry.
Jackie Harvey’s “Harveywood,” is at home as a featured portion of The Onion, both online and in print. Like most stories found in The Onion, “Harveywood” is meant to be satirical—the audience, generally the faithfully cynical—should expect nothing less. This blog focuses on varying points of pop culture—celebrity gossip, computer games, media reviews. Here, the content is not exactly what is important, but the way in which the content is presented. The audience needs to know that “Jackie Harvey” is a persona created for The Onion. They need to know that he does not actually care about Britney’s baby or the latest Destiny’s Child CD. One way the writer(s) show this is through misspelling. For example, rather than simply saying, “Along Came Polly was great!” “Jackie” states, “…Sometimes, you're pleasantly surprised and you get a Something About Polly. That movie made me want to buy a ferret for months.” Not only could he be addressing the only thing worthwhile in the film was the ferret, but by combining the titles for Along Came Polly and Something About Mary, he is addressing that not only is he full of it, but most movies starring Ben Stiller are formulaic garbage. Of course, that could just be my reading.
George Thomas’ blog is much more basic than Pink is the New Blog or “Harveywood.” There is no satire or daily update. It is what it says it is—a movie spotlight. If one reads his reviews or articles in The Akron Beacon Journal and for one reason or another decides s/he wants more, they can simply go to The Beacon online and read what does not make it to print. It may not be exciting, but something about its simplicity works. It isn’t pretentious or over-the-top. Like each blog, it is out there to serve its purpose.
posted by suzified @ 5:24 PM
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