Summary: In the article, “Imagining the Blogosphere” written by Graham Lampa, He discusses the effects of blogging and instant publishing on our world. Lampa talks about how the internet creates a large community of people by connecting them through blogging even though they haven’t met face-to-face or even communicate. This creates an interconnected community through instant publishing with links that allow readers to gain knowledge on certain topics, or even go ahead and write in their own blogs. Some people use blogs in order to write, read, or research about topics that interest them or to gain information. This begins to rival print journalism and the powers hidden behind that. Lampa sheds light on how powerful the blogosphere is by not being filtered for the benefit of profit. Blogs are filtered for topics rather than looking at which article will sell the most. This community is worldwide thanks to the internet and people from around the world can connect and create their own blogs.
Making Connections: This article really shed a light on the power of the internet and blogging. When I think of blogging, the first thing that used to come to mind is a diary style page written sharing experiences with friends and family. The community Lampa writes about encompasses much more than just that. The connection between author and reader without having an editor or someone from above approving certain topics and what they write creates work that has a distinct feel compared to news articles. Lampa did state that most people still go to the news for alerts and breaking news, but look more into pieces written by people who aren’t in influential parts of the media. The article does seem outdated sounding like it was written in the mid-2000s. Overall, it gives a good glimpse that there is more to blogging than what meets the eye.
Commentary: The power of blogging and affective community created by it is shown and written about in this article. It gives a look at how the common views and research of blogging differ from the full picture. the analogy of a tip of an ice berg was used to get this point across. Communities are built off of not physical or emotional connections but more so an imagined community built off of interconnected topics and audiences that continue to grow. I like how Lampa gives examples that go against his main idea and explains them which actually end up strengthening his points. As a student whose currently trying to improve as a writer, it gives me insight on ways to strengthen points in writing.
Mustafa's summer english blog 