Emerging Media Report-

In his article, “Interactive Online Journals and Individualisation,” Paul Hodskin suggests that there has
been a shift among people using the internet towards individual web logs (blogs) and online interactive journals as a way to socially communicate with each other. This trend is transitioning into a commonality and it is almost preassumed that people have some method or form to interact online with others, whether it be with a social network such as Facebook or a personal blog on a site such as Tumblr. The article gives substanial support for this idea, stating that “the dramatic growth in blog use is provided by the blog search engine, Technorati, which in April 2005 claimed to be tracking over 9,000,000 blogs, a figure which had risen from just 100,000 in 2002,” (Technorati 2005).

The fundamental claim of this article evaluates the relationship between individuals and groups on the
internet and how they network or communicate. The article focuses primarily on LiveJournal and its users to identify and base the research. It is said that the use of LiveJournal encouraged individual-centered patterns communication in multitude of aspects. Instead of being impacted passively by technology, individuals and groups have used online communicative forums as a means to keep track of existing relationships, but in concurrence with that process, the patterns of communication of these individuals and groups have changed, expanding networks of sociability.

Individual online journals have brought about some significant changes in the structure of this commu
nication. According to the article, “significance of individual distinctiveness within everyday communications has been increased,” (Hodskin, 30). Elements of individualism in everyday communications engaged in by members of a community or group implies that use of interactive online journals or blogs can be anticipated to increase patterns of interaction significantly more than individual-centered agency than has been observed in the case of many discussion forums. This relates back to a concept in the first chapter of Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody when we change how we communicate, we change the nature of our society.

There is also an idea of an online subculture community. From this article’s research emerges a
supposition connected to this subculture community that we have discussed and are experiencing directly in class; individuals can be brought together at a common digital meeting place asycnhronously. This is now enabling students to take online college courses and actually earn a bachelor’s degree online. One college known for this option is University of Phoenix. Our class has had digital conferences set as class sessions that I believe were very successful. As long as students still come prepared for the online conferences and participate assertively in the discussions it is not unreasonable to think that it would be typical or normal for someone to take online courses for higher education than in person class routines. This topic could be useful and applicable to study or understand for future students.

The graph to the right shows a prediction of where students are expected to attend their classes in the near future. It is interesting that the vast majority of students will switch from attending all classes in a physical classroom to taking some of their classes in a digital realm. More significantly perhaps, this bar graph also claims that there will be more students in general taking higher education classes in 2014 compared to 2009. It does not necessary allude to classes being more available and credible into the reasoning of this academic population growth.

Another valid conclusion this article discusses is the standard language users of these online communities use. It is described as ‘bullet point conversations.’ The collected interactions found on LiveJournal consis tently displayed short, often less than a sentence long, comments to exchange information or ideas. Another observaion in this same study indicated that posts are only commented on while they are new. This ties in with our discussion in class of what signifies or is essential for a blog’s success. Posts have short-lived lifespans because very abruptly those that accumulated a thread of comments are becoming replaced or updated with even newer posts. I would consider a blog successful when, “if one wished to continue to take part in a conversation any more than a 24 hours after it had begun, it [would be] necessary proactively to scroll back through several pages worth of entries from various individuals,” (Hodskin, 20). This means the blog is constantly being commented on and updated frequently, which is a goal our class has set for our blog.

Overall, Paul Hodskin clearly identifies the significance and influence of emerging networking sites and other advantageous digital facilities as rapidly growing conventions. Technology directly affects and changes the way people live their lives, from taking a midterm exam in your pajamas in bed with establishing online higher education courses to forming online subculture communites, bringing people of all different social class, age, race , etc., together to discuss the same subject. This provides a limitless list of possibilities to achieve as a digitalized communtity of the globe.


-Lindsay Gross