Grounding Exercise Follow-Up
Jason asked me some more questions in his comments on my grounding exercise that I'd like to address. First, his comments:
Very thoughtful grounding exercise, Michelle. I think your comments about wanting to push the Herring et. al article to be more rhetorical in its analysis are spot on. There is just something about doing a strictly quantitative analysis of a communicative phenomenon that leaves me feeling a little short-changed.
Did you find that there were any rhetorical implications of the Herring et.al piece? Rhetorical implications that were not addressed in the Miller and Shepherd piece?
I like your discussion of voice. I think that the voice of a blog is an understated point of analysis that we ought to consider. When I think about the blogs that I read on a regular basis, I find that I don’t always know anything about the people I am reading. I gather what I want to know by hearing the voice that they are using to compose their blogs.
What do you think that writers for the web can learn about cultivating a voice? How could we apply that knowledge to our web design goals?
While I can't think of further rhetorical implications at the present, I'm sure there are many. Actually, I just thought of one: can the power of a blogger's voice be misued for nefarious ends? We had a little brouhaha over on Ben's blog related to the Maytag blog - it ended amiacably enough I think, but it could have gotten ugly. What if a blogger misrepresented himself and drew people in to something rather nasty? Miller and Shepherd talked about the website of a woman who pretended to have a sick child with cancer. Imagine the nefarious goals of someone out to defraud. It's awful to think about, but people prey on the elderly, the sick, the weak. There are a hundred thousand websites promising you the answers through astrology, psychic connections, lottery numbers via email - the web is just another channel for that kind of misbehavior. There was an article in Vanity Fair last month -- yes, I read Vanity Fair! It's the People magazine of the Hamptons, you know! Pure trash, just in a very nice package with great photography, but I digress (that one's just for you, John) -- about a teenage boy in England who created numerous identities for himself and drew another teenage boy into a web where he actually convinced the guy to try to kill someone. The person he was to attack was the first boy (yes, it's a very tangled web, sure to be a movie of the week any day now), meaning it may be the first instance of the internet being used in a suicide. But think about it. Say I write a blog about my life and my problems, soliciting money, help, aid of any sort. And it was all a lie. The damage could be just as serious, all caused by the almighty power of the voice. Remember Aristotle gave an awful lot of leeway to the rhetor. Rhetoric is the tool of the powerful and can be used to subjugate the meek, or defend all kinds of things, from institutionalized racism to the horrors of the Holocaust, or recently, Darfur. I read a lot of blogs because of the power of the voice. But a powerful voice can convince people to maim, torture, and kill.
Having said that, the power of the voice can really be a powerful way to create real communication, even between companies and customers. Neil Gaiman's blog is one instance of a place where real, honest-to-God communication takes place between an artist and his flock, if you will, of admirers. I think Gaiman keeps it up because it keeps his intentions honest, to be in such close contact with the consumers of his work. He can't retreat into a shell and pretend he doesn't know what they are looking for from him, can he? But neither can his fans pretend to misunderstand when he begs (on those rare occasions) for privacy and peace. To know people in their real, everyday lives is to in some way take responsibility for them. If I grant you access to my life, I'm also entrusting you with it, in a sense. Will you use that power against me, for ill? Certainly many celebrities learn of the danger of revealing too much personal information. But some have managed to turn those into real connections that enrich their lives, as I would argue Gaiman has done. Think of a world in which we all really, truly understand each other because we have made these personal, one-to-one connections with one another. Can I really turn my back when others are in danger? Can I really set up a Star Wars network when I know all the people who are within my sights? Take John's Six Degrees of Separation tool on Live Journal. Connections between us really are that close . . . and getting closer all the time. That's the power of the networked world, and, I think, why people get jazzed up about the internet and new technologies like it. Because once you know, you can understand, and once you understand, you can't help but change. That's life. That's how you can change the world. For good, or bad.
Missed the game but caught the highlights . . .
on the Herb Sendek show Sunday morning. Kent, our HR Manager and fellow Wolfpacker, and I were still discussing Evtimov's behind-the-back bounce pass this morning. It is very nice to be able to discuss victory amongst all the Devils and Tarheels in the building. My boss - the guy whose name is on the building - is a Duke fan and just loves to rub it in whenever we lose. Which is why I have my NCSU basketball poster on the wall behind my door so he can see it every single time he walks down the hallway.
I don't want to dump this burden on my poor overworked basketball team, but guys, thank you for letting us hold our head up. Even if we don't dance this year, I will still be proud of you. Especially Engin Atsur. Who, apparently, needs to start trash-talking to get as much attention as anyone else on the team. Jordan Collins - okay, I love him too, but he gets his ass in gear for one game, and he gets his very own article in the N&O. Engin at least got the front cover shot and mention in the headline, but apparently playing 36 minutes a game, always hitting your free throws and hustling your ass off gets you only an honorable mention in this world. I guess I'm thinking about basketball because it's almost the end. One more away game, one more home game, and the tournament, and then no more Engin for eight months. It's just a tragedy. . .
Update: The Herald-Sun gave my boy some love on March 1st.
Spaces Virtual and Real
Last night's class lecture on mapping spaces got me thinking about the differences between the two buildings in which I have classes this semester, Tompkins (English) and Nelson, the College of Management Building (Business 543, Database Management). The interiors couldn't be more different.
Tompkins reminds me of classrooms at Belmont Abbey College, which were in the original monastery built by the Benedictine monks who settled in the area. The building was made of red clay bricks constructed right from the mud on the site and the floors and ceilins were wood, so everything creaked with age. Stairs were narrow, and the doors were all impossibly large and heavy. The doors in Tompkins are impossible to get open and they are so heavy that they almost smash you to death on the way in. When I'm coming into that building with my briefcase and my purse I can barely get in because I can't use both arms to pull and hold open the door, and then it slams behind you with a crash, as if it's scolding you for disturbing it. The "oldness" of the building represented by the flaking paint and the wood and the chairs in disarray in the hall during renovation gives you the feeling that you have entered into history in some way - I don't want to overstate this, but it goes along with the study of English and literature, older sciences that often take you into the past. Benches line the halls and there are always congregating students sitting and standing and sometimes squatting on the floor. In the classrooms the projectors don't always work, the rooms have chalkboards, not white boards, and all of the technology of the computer labs is obviously stuck "on top" of the architecture that was not designed for cameras and computers and video equipment. The chairs and tables seem too low to fit in the spaces, and I'm never comfortable in them, so I squirm a lot. It's louder in that building because of all the crashing and the creaking and the squirming and the doors that don't quite fit into their jambs. I know they are renovating Tompkins, and I wonder if they will lose some of that architectural richness (mean old doors and all) in favor of renovating the building in the manner that Nelson has been renovated.
Nelson feels newer in contrast, but something has been lost. The floors are tiled and sloped to allow for more convenient handicapped access, with metal railings throughout the middles of the halls. There are no benches to sit on, no lounge. There are staid stone steps leading into the building and the doors are light and open and close easily and silently. The building is also devoid of students. At night when I am there the place is full of MBA students with briefcases and messenger bags and cellphones, but there is no congregating. We are all hurrying on our way to somewhere with other things to do; when you walk in everyone is in a hurry, usually talking to someone on a cell phone or scrolling through a PDA while speeding through the halls at the speed of light. On breaks during my three-hour class, no one "hangs." They scatter separately on other errands somewhere. The classrooms and lecture halls have metal and other man-made materials forming the architectural elements - the tables are molded industrial plastic with chairs attached, the white boards are new and glide silently along their tracks, the place is wired everywhere, the lights are controlled by a sci-fi controller up at the lecturer's table. I joke to the guys in my project team for that class that I should move into the MBA program to get "a nicer ride," but I don't really mean it. Although the seats are more comfortable than in Tompkins. The Abbey managed to renovate their buildings while still retaining an older feel. They lightened the space and just let the big windows and the bricks and the wood speak. But I have no idea what the classes are like now that computers have taken over the classroom. It would be an interesting trip to go back and see those spaces now.
519 continues to be fascinating. I certainly never thought of the connection between real-world architecture and information architecture this way. I consider that my eyes are widening to see the universe in a totally different way. I'm looking forward to going to the museum on Sunday to study the environment in which I have spent many happy hours enjoying and learning about art. I tried to explain all of this to my husband and he wasn't impressed. Sigh. Even the ones we love can't always share our passions and the interests that take us into strange new directions in life. I imagine he feels the same way about me when he tells me it's only 37 days until the opening pitch of major league baseball, and I'm not exactly impressed, either.
Interesting website experiences
This website was just launched by Avenue A|Razorfish for the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture. It seemed to go along with our class topics pretty well. Another site I was informed about today (marketers love to brag) is the one for CureSearch, a national foundation for children's cancer research. Both have interesting features I think that I'd like to dig into further, later when I'm not at work.
Website proof
Bonjour, la classe. If you have a moment please critique the design proof of my Firm's new website. It is an html document but the links won't take you anywhere. I'd appreciate any and all comments if you have the time and will share your comments with the designers themselves. I hope this doesn't intimidate you - I am sincerely looking to do a much better job this time around and welcome your help.
Notes about the proof:
- picture is for position only but the concept is similar to what we may use
- the thumbnail graphics and sections in the main content area (farther down the page) are for the major content areas of our website
- we are considering changing the "hiring a personal injury lawyer" section in the right nav to "current topics" so we can have direct links to hot topic areas like recalled drugs and the like
Thanks to all.
Overworked weekend (sniff)
I've been home sick since Thursday afternoon with whatever general cold/flu/viral crud is sweeping our office. Nine people were sick by Thursday morning; I started having symptoms at the beginning of the game Wednesday and by the end of it I was barely able to make it back to the car I felt so weak and cruddy. Four days of weakness, nausea, and other fun symptoms (I'll spare you the messy details) later, I've been crawling slowly through my mound of school work, sniffling all the way. I've gone through four boxes of tissue just since Friday afternoon, with my new personal record - two boxes! - just today. Word to the wise: no matter how much lotion or softness a company claims goes into a tissue, after a solid day of blowing your nose into them every five seconds, there is no such thing as a comfortable nostril. My nose feels absolutely raw, my eyes hurt and my entire brain is completely exhausted. I worked my way through three SQL tutorials Friday and Saturday, finished the research for and wrote my part of a team project paper (four pages) as well as eleven slides for that project's presentation, and did a case study analysis, all for my BUS 543 class. Today I studied online recruitment sites (Monster, Hot Jobs) for my genre analysis paper for ENG 519 and wrote a first draft.
I have been on this laptop for three days and I'm getting sick of looking at it, let me tell you. I am nearly finished with my first draft, I just have to add the literature review part and then start editing. It's sitting at six single-spaced pages right now, quite a bit longer than required. Jason asked for 8-10 double-spaced pages so I've got a big editing job in front of me, but I'm pretty good at hacking into my own writing by now so I'm not too worried, anymore. I was worried this afternoon that I wouldn't get the draft finished today; technically I didn't finish it, but really I only need to write one or two more paragraphs to call it a finished first draft, and I can do those tomorrow night after 543. I may end up doing it during the day tomorrow; if I still feel this cruddy I'm staying home one more day, because no one at work will appreciate me sniffling and spreading germs all over the office. I can't miss class tomorrow though; since we only meet once a week I can't afford to skip a single one of those. I'm still debating missing another 519 class on Tuesday, but that's because its the Carolina game. I should really go to class. I should. I should. But!!!
p.s. for the Pack Tuesday night, please rinse and repeat previous game. Merci.
The beat Maryland blogpost
Here's what I would like from tonight's game:
- I would like everyone in the place to be hoarse when they walk out of it.
- I would like #11, John Gilchrist, to be reminded that Engin Atsur is his Daddy. Preferably by the ten or fifteen points he will not score on our court.
- Threes, threes, give me some heart-stopping threes.
- Playing together. That would be: five guys and one ball and one shot/one rebound if necessary then another shot, not one guy one ball, four guys watching, one brick and no rebound.
- No black shirts, black tee-shirts, or black jackets. None!
Thank you very much for your support.
Mark Cuban posted an interesting take on the rise of blogging, specifically on the rise of what he termed "political blogging." He's basically taking the "deal with them because they are already here," or "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" position. The Volokh Conspiracy has an interesting post about the discourse community relationship served by weblogs and their readers.
Search Engine Optimization can be a nasty business
Our SEO firm problem has escalated to a legal issue so I can't talk about it, which is a drag because I am dying to tell. Since I can't, I 'm going to blog as much as I can about the process of building our new website with our new vendor who we hired today. Our target go-live date is March 15th. I only have about a million things due for school around then, but hell, this is what makes life interesting. Right?
Two points going our way, and jubilation ensues
There are two pictures posted on the net (both AP pics I think) that explain Sunday night's win: 1) overwhelming hustle and 2) pure joy. I gotta say, I just love that picture of Tony Bethel and Julius Hodge. This is what college basketball is all about. It was an ugly nail-biter of a game, but it was beautiful in its own way, especially because even though we led most of the way, we didn't shoot well, but still never gave it up.
I wish I could say the same about our genre analysis assignment. I'm really not enthused about anything enough. I originally thought of looking at blawgs (law blogs), but I'm getting blogged out I think. What with all our postings for class and thinking about blogs and looking at blogs, I'd rather do something else. However, something else seems like more work than I can possibly fit in the time allotted. I did wonder about online job ads, recruiting websites and/or career pages at company websites. They might fill in well with our discussions about company personas and communicative goals, because most job ads are not just about filling an open position. When I was writing up to 20 online ads a week for a recruiter, many of our ads were bait and switch, but the opposite of a sales B&S - not too far from BS, is it? - in that the juicier job was often placed to lure people into lower-salaried positions, locations not as interesting, or to build up our applicant database. Companies may try to improve their PR in ads, too.
Intellectual Property
I learned some interesting things today. First, someone doesn't want our business and someone does. The people who don't want our business are holding our website hostage and made vague claims to owning the intellectual property that is our website. This would be the website that we determined the colors for, determined the layout for, and of which we wrote every word, and the very same website that they can't get us ranked on search engines with. I can't believe they are trying to play hardball with a bunch of lawyers. Are they crazy???
The people who want our business have been bending over backwards and working for us for free today trying to help me get this situation straightened out. I can't speak anymore about it until it's over, but it's the most unbelievable situation in the world. First they ignore me, then they insult me, then they offend me, and then they piss off my bosses. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Welcome to "professional services." Thank God it's Friday.
"I think that you should shut up now."
That's a quote from my favorite movie, The Fisher King. Perry says that to Lydia just before he declares his undying love. Me, I just need to shut up because I don't know WTF I'm talking about when it comes to NCSU basketball. Our poor Wolfpack. Here I am telling Ilian to get off his ass and lead the team, and the poor guy isn't sleeping for days. I feel incredibly guilty for doubting them. Positivity, that's my mantra and I gotta stick to it. They're the only team I've got. Oh, and beat Wake. And what is this bull-hockey about Ilian not being enough of an athlete? It's on the Pack Pride message boards too, as if it is a particular handicap of Ilian's and Engin's that they are smart basketball players. Can I get some relief? Can we please just win one so everyone will just shut up about it? I'm just enough over being depressed about the VA game that I can go back to hoping for one more night. I can't promise I'll be hopeful for the rest of the stretch, but tonight at least, I am back with the pep squad.
In other good news, tomorrow I get to give my website gurus their first check so they can go forth and build me a better website, which will get us ranked and keep my seat in the office nice and chilly. Finally, something positive is going on in marketing land. It will take a few weeks to get built, so I will get a break from web content writing for a while. Which should give me enough time to learn SQL and write, oh, three or four major research papers for my classes due in the next few weeks. Also on Saturday, Richard is taking me to Wilmington for Valentine's Day. Wherever we are going is a secret.
I just realized I've been too bloody busy to blog!
I haven't blogged in three days because I've been so busy for class and work. Tuesday night after class I succumbed to the migraine that had been building all day - I barely made it through class. I could hear people on the other side of the room typing and the lights in the classroom were killing me. When I got into my car I had something of a panic attack, and didn't think I would make it home. I did make it home, radio off, and didn't get stopped so hopefully I didn't weave all over the road. Richard took me to the ER, but I couldn't take it. Rex was packed, it was bright and loud. It was like being tortured. In the waiting room there were three tvs, one with the GA Tech basketball game, one with some reality tv show, every seat was taken, a baby was screaming, and some woman almost got killed for insisting on opening up some kind of hard candy or cough drop wrappers continually and I could hear every little plastic fold and tear. With a migraine, these kinds of sounds are like being hit by a thousand little samurai blow-darts. I lost it and insisted Richard take me home. I dosed up on caffeine, my PTSD meds, Unisom, aspirin and Tylenol and sat in the dark with ice on my head and neck. Richard slept in the front room with the cats. I last saw the clock at 1 something in the morning. When I woke up I felt I'd been hit in the head with a baseball bat. Out of it.
What a crash. I haven't had a migraine like that in over three years. It must be all the reading and work I'm doing for my classes, the stress of the internet going to hell at work, and worrying about my job (i.e., when am I going to get fired for all of this?) I don't know, but now I'm worried about being worried. My shrink is going to love talking to me next week.
More on leadership 'cause I just can't discuss our game performance right now.
This got posted on the packpride.com message boards today - read the first post to understand. Given what I wrote prior to Saturday's game, and what I saw Saturday, I feel more confident in repeating my call for Ilian to
get off his ass. I can understand being friends with a guy for almost four years and the very, very special bond that creates - I just met with my college roommate on Saturday and I can tell you that it takes us less than 10 seconds to get back into the same communication groove we had when we were in college, and it's one of the most precious things in the world to me. What a gift, but again I digress. But something major is going on. If it's not about stepping up, then it's about Herb or the coaching in general, because what else is there? I do know that after we had gone on our run on VA and gotten it tied up, Ilian was benched and he looked
pissed. It was clear that there was something going on he did not agree with.
Let me clarify - for Ilian, I
imagine it was "pissed." He's so stoic it's really hard to tell if he's upset or mad or anything else, but he looked like he was physically holding something inside him - his mouth and jaw were in such a tight line, I thought he would end up with lockjaw. I watched just him for a while through my trusty, handsome-men-with-beautiful-arms binoculars (well, hell, the game wasn't worth watching for stretches - and I
LOVE my Wolfpack - I cheered my ass off FYI) on the bench and he just continued to look like he didn't dare open his mouth because something foul was going to come out of it.
I understand feeling that way and believe me, letting it out is the best thing you can do. For everyone. Let it out. Let it out, Ilian! Come on! It's not over until it's over, March 13th is still over a month away, and there are seven more games. What are you going to do, hold it in for the duration? Lockjaw is said to be an extremely unpleasant experience.
This is positivity
Tim Peeler, author of Legends of NC State Basketball, posted a positive article. There will be no giving up!!! That's an order!
Dynamics and leadership
Being the person who gets it doesn't translate into leadership. Case in point: Ilian Evtimov. I haven't talked much about him on my blog. He and Engin are my favorite players because they are no-bullshit. They put the ball on the floor and they play, and they don't get rattled by people in their face, trash talk, falling down, getting fouled, etc. They are also the most handsome. There, I said it. They have the best, most beautiful arms. Sigh. But anyway . . .
Being able to push the stress away from you is not the same as not displaying, or not having, emotion. I know this from being a trauma survivor. The people who make it the best through stressful situations are those who can compartmentalize emotion to a certain degree, almost disassociate. But to stay on point -- I can do that, you know, I can, but this is my blog and Ill ramble all I want! Sheesh. Okay, where was I? Oh yeah -- on point: Ilian understands the NCSU offense and he understands basketball, to what I would say is some kind of Zen level. He just knows whats going to happen. This is why he should always get the basketball, period. When Ilian controls the offense, we play great and we can't be taken down. Opponents realize this, because they make a point of shutting him down, as did Carolina last night. The Carolina players said a few days before the game that the guy that they had to shut down was #3.
Having said that, our team seems to lack leadership. Ilian doesn't seem to be translating his knowledge into actionable leadership. Since I dont know the interior dynamics, I can only speculate, but I think Julius may be the problem. Ilian and Julius have to be very close friends (how else could the team work?) and Julius, by strength of personality, gets the most attention. But Julius can't lead because he doesnt have the gift of disassociation, or putting emotion aside, or whatever you want to call it, and he can't consistently lead. He gets frustrated, he gets emotional, then he takes the ball and the game becomes the Julius Hodge show and there are four other guys in red standing around waiting for the ball. In the last 10 games, the ones where Julius showed up as a leader and not a personality were the ones in which we succeeded. What happened in NYC? Julius wanted to look good in the Knicks house, and decided the NCSU way was not the way to do it. There are big, wide, hanging gaps between the Hodge offense and the State offense, and we all know it.
So, why doesn't Ilian fill the gap? I can't say because I don't know the dynamics of the situation, and I'm probably as much wrong as I am right, because I'm talking about a game I can't play, myself. He may lead like a bandit behind closed doors, who knows? But a few times this season inside the RBC Center, Ive found myself yelling, "Give the damned ball to Ilian! "AND "Ilian, get mad. Get mad, get mad, get mad!" I think he has a big heart and he leads by encouraging the guys. But maybe they need to be smacked around some and yelled at and called losers who dont give a rat's posterior. I think Melvin had the gift of getting mad last year (evidence: the Maryland game at Maryland last year), but Melvin is gone.
I can't get negative about last nights game, though, because we didnt have much of a chance, not being at less than 100%, not with Engin sick, and not playing what I think is the best team in the country, and we only had 12 turnovers. Come on. I did hope we didn't get embarrassed. Here comes the Herb haters and the scalpers looking for what's left of his hair, and the endless analysis, and the message-board posting, and people getting spun up, and people depressed and talking NIT. How in the world does Herb get his team motivated in this environment? How does he motivate himself? Where does it come from? Maybe from just hoping you can do it, trying as hard as you can, and not letting the people around you fail.
Basketball isnt like hockey, but teams can come back from things that just dont seem possible to survive, like the US Hockey team in 1980. They can be at the bottom and end up kicking everyone's ass, like Maryland in the ACC tournament last year. Or, like us in the NCAA last year, until two points behind against Vandy. Who would have guessed we would have gotten that far, two points away from the Sweet 16? Who knows what this team is made of? Who can predict? Only that this is the hardest week of our team's life, and we probably wont make it. The fungi are probably right, and we probably suck, and we will probably end up in the NIT, and Ilian will leave his last year of eligibility behind next year, and break my heart. But it's the only team I've got, and I am still going to cheer until I'm hoarse on Saturday from my little seat in the rafters, because the alternative is watching a bunch of overpaid whiners in the NBA. And if you can't cheer for the underdog, why cheer? It's got to be boring winning all of the time, right? Right? Right?????
Why my job is on the line
At the New York: Ad Tech show, an analyst with Piper Jeffrey announced his search revenue projections for the next two years. This is revenue devoted to search engine marketing, and the projection is -- wait for it -- $13.5 Billion by 2007.
Take a deep breath. The web is supposed to be changing at the speed of light, but that's not true. The web is changing everything else at the speed of light, and one of the things its doing is making everything so big that very small firms are not going to be able to compete unless they Purple Cow, because big biz is going to be pouring the money on. When you search, do you look at ads or the natural rankings? Do you think the natural rankings are not manipulated by marketers? Think again. SEO can manipulate rankings. But what else do you do, look through 300 webpages to find the thing you need? No - you go for the most convenient thing. And being the easiest-to-find thing is starting to be a very big business indeed.
I hate my chair being so warm. I wonder if my php gurus know how much trouble they have gotten themselves into? Expectations are high. Very, very, very high. We're talking Malaysian spike high. Sheesh.
Grounding Exercise: “Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs”
Herring, Susan C., Lois Ann Scheidt, Sabrina Bonus, and Elijah Wright, in Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004.
In "Bridging the Gap," Herring, et. al, provide us with a linguistic analysis of weblogs. They state explicitly that they seek to "characterize the properties" of the genre, and they do this in a qualitative manner, with tables of word usages, amount of links, etc. What I found the most interesting is that Herring, et. al, found that blogs are overwhelmingly (70.4%) written in a personal journal style, and of this I am in complete agreement. Although this piece is not a rhetorical analysis, what I think makes a blog, a blog, is this personal, diary- or journal- like quality, and the strange arena of the private within the public that blogs inhabit.
In my mind, a blog is not effective unless it reflects the personality, or personality construct, if you will, of the blogger. I personally read many blogs, and the blogs that I favor are written by strong writers, or, in the case of the professional blogs I read, written by professionals I trust, admire, or want to emulate. I would go so far as to say that a blog is ineffective if the personality of the user does not come through in the writing.
The quality of the writing is the key factor, and for the purposes of online information design, it brings to the fore the power of the word. Ultimately, websites are just text - programmed code on the backend, and content on the front end. Visually we can make certain kinds of statements, and as we have seen, some attempt is being made to bridge the sensory gap on the web as well. The heart of it, though, especially if you just do a raw count of the kind of content on webpages, is the word, and just as with any other successful writing, the quality of the voice is what makes the blog genre work. Dave Barry's blog was (sadly, is no more) written in Dave Barry's voice, which was unequivocally his.
In the Herring, et. al, article (I love Latin phrases, don't you? Must be a Catholic thing), it strikes me that the rhetorical analysis is wanting from this piece, but Carolyn Miller and
Dawn Shepherd bring it back, so in the interest of not jumping ahead, let me just say that I really wanted the authors to give me some examples of the blog entries they studied. Why didn't they categorize the categories of postings? How much of a blog is devoted to topics exclusively personal that cannot be replicated by another's experience? That would have been interesting data that might have shed light on why so many blogs are so personal. I think that it is only when a blog is written in a personal style that it has any staying power, and if blogs do stick around to be made worthy of the name (genre, that is), I think that is the consistent, crucial factor that won't change very much. On that note, my discussion questions for the class are:
1. As we have all written blog entries for the class it's become apparent that some of us are blogging more than others. If you do blog often, what prompts you to blog? For instance, why am I posting about other topics on my blog like NC State basketball or search engine optimization? (For the record, it's because my husband says I'm very passionate about thethings I'm interested in and can't shut up about them. He'd also like me to stop talking about Engin Atsur, but that's not going to happen until late March at the earliest; sorry).
2. If you aren't blogging often, why aren't you? Are you uncomfortable with the confessional style of the medium, uncomfortable talking about yourself, or is it for some other reason?
Non-Profit Home Pages
American Red Cross (ARC)
Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
United Negro College Fund
United Way
I chose to look at non-profits that were internationally known with large budgets. I thought these five organizations would have common communicative goals, to wit:
- To spread the word about the plight(s) they were trying to rectify
- To ask for donations
With the exception of the UNCF, the first thing I noticed is that all the sites resemble consumer-news sites, with three to four columns of content with news items their primary focus. The news items are formatted to resemble traditional news articles with headlines and pictures.
UNICEF and the UNCF have logos resembling crests, seals, or emblems on nation flags with muted colors. The ARC, United Way and MSF have very simple logos created from line drawings with bold colors. Three of the sites feature slogans or mottos at the tops of their sites (“A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” “what matters,” “together we can save a life). All of the sites except for the UNCF offer a site-search box near the top or at the top of the page. Four of the sites offer an email newsletter or site updates, which visitors can easily subscribe to receive, so there is an immediate call-to-action right there on the site and the rest of the site is peppered with calls-to-action. 5 of 6 ask specifically for donations on the home page using action verbs. Navigation within the site is also written with action verbs.
All sites are image-rich with pictures of real people. Two of the sites use flash animation to move the pictures and catch the eye. Also several of the sites use graphics in their animations – pictures of flags, symbols for navigation like arrows or to reinforce text – the flame symbol next to giving blood, a clock next to planned giving, and radio buttons for video links. I think this helps create a sense of empowerment in the visitor, as if their actions can make a difference to this large organization.
