Good Blogging!

Jane Tallim an Education Specialist says that Media Literacy is “the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It's the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media— from music videos and Web environments to product placement in films and virtual displays on NHL hockey boards. It's about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions— the motives, the money, the values and the ownership— and to be aware of how these factors influence content.”

I think that Jane hits the spot when defining media literacy. I think it’s important for us to know this and study this because it’s our society that gets affected daily by the media. We deserve to understand and be aware of what’s going on around us. We may not be interested now, but at the end of the day, it’s our future we have to look forward to and the media is never going to go away. If we are to learn and understand now, maybe not fully but partially, we will stand a better chance in the future.

People have now started to try and explain and expose the media in blogs. It is an easy way for the world to hear what other people have to say about what they think about our society and our media. But what makes a good blog? How can you tell between a good blog and a bad one? I personally think that when writing a blog you need to follow a few helpful tips.

1. Quality beats quantity – you may have a lot to say, but most people don’t want to read a blog that’s 700 words long, they just don’t have time! Make your blog short and informative.
2. Cite! – If you’re going to take someone else’s opinion or pictures you have to cite them properly. If not, you’re stealing!
3. Write about what’s important to you – when writing you should write about things that you want to write about. If you start to write about things that you don’t find interesting, your blog will turn out the same way, uninteresting! You wont put your full emotions and thoughts into something you could care less about.
4. Edit – when reading a blog you don’t want to have to guess what the person is talking about. Make sure you spell check all your work so that people can understand what you mean.

The good thing about blogs is that it lets people express themselves freely for the whole world to hear. It allows you to express your feelings and emotions about our society and our world. Some negative things about blogging is that if you’re up for the comments from other people, it can be ugly. When making your own blog you have to face the facts that some people are not going to agree with you. Some people may nicely disagree, some people will call you names, and some will say you have no idea what you’re talking about. That’s the life of being a blogger, you have to learn how to take criticism and plain ignorance and get past it. You have to keep writing about what’s important to you and not let society tell you what’s right and wrong.

There are many cases where blogs have been brought to the medias attention through television, some good, some bad. There was one case in where a boy from Dawson College in Montreal was a part of a blog site called vampirefreaks.com where he posted many disturbing posts. On September 13, 2006 Gill opened fired at his school where he killed 1 and wounded 9. This is an example of how a blog can turn negative in the media.

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Rowse, Darren. "Ten Tips for Writing a Blog Post." Pro Blogger. 30 Dec 2005. Darren Rowse. 16 Jan 2008 .

"What is Media Literacy?." Media Awareness Network. 2008. Media Awareness Network. 16 Jan 2008 http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/media_literacy/what_is_media_literacy.cfm.