Reflect, Refresh, Repeat

For this week, we had to read three blog entries from three different blogs. I read twice Henry Jenkins's “Why Academic Should Blog” on his Aca/Fan blog, and read several posts in “The Bamboo Project.” But, for some reason, I only read once “The Reverend asked me question” on the blog Gardner Writes. It's not that I disrespect or don't understand the latter, it is that I found that several of his asseverations resonate with what we had mentioned in class, or with what I have thought since the first day I saw and read a blog.

Now, this says a lot about me. Why did I read Jenkins twice? Is it because he's from MIT? Probably. But I believe that the main reason is that his entry resembles a page or two from media studies essays. He provides some terms that I understand, links, and general information. The first time I read “Why Academics Should Blog” I clicked on most of the links, while the second time, I read it without clicking on anything. It's easy to look at and read the bits and pieces of “The Bamboo Project,” because they follow more a business format, like a meeting agenda, or a check list in a magazine. I imagine that when Jenkins and Gardner jot (or typed) down a few thoughts before they started writing their entries, those thoughts probably looked like the list presented by Martin. Of course, the public of each blog is different. Jenkins speaks to his students, former students, readers of his books, the media, prospective students of MIT, etc. Gardner writes like he's giving a lecture or presenting a paper in a conference. Gardner's language mimics more a conversation than a book. Maybe this is why I read his entry only once: because when I read his blog, it was as if I was listening to him talk. Martin minimalistic entries remind me of my own entries in my photo blog. Sometimes I write a sentence or incomplete phrases, since the purpose for this blog is to show the photos that make reflect the most, even if they're not the best ones.

The term that I like the most in Jenkins is "just-in-time scholarship." I remember how intellectuals and regular people in Mexico City spoke about the earthquake that killed several hundreds of people and destroyed large areas of the city in 1986. The only other time I heard or read something similar was after September 11. Jean Baudrillard and others published essays about terrorism and how the global village had also bad guys, etc. It seemed very opportunistic to me that so many philosophers/academics rushed to publish their comments on book form, even if they only repeated what we have already thought and discussed in our daily lives.

I like the idea that the blog allows “just-in-time scholarship,” unfortunately, similar to the print academic journals, not everybody reads scholarly blogs. In other words, it would great if every blog had “just-in-time readership.”

Jenkins writes, “As honest brokers of information, academics may be ideally situated to bridge these more specialized conversations. As a consequence, our various blogs attract readerships that extend well beyond the academic sphere...” The first time I read this phrase, I thought, “this is only for famous universities, like MIT, Harvard, etc.,” because the media and general public will search and choose to read first a blog from an ivy league university, than from a small university in Virginia, let's say the University of Mary Washington, Gardner's university. Like the latter said, “blogging means being intellectual” and if you “build, manage and maintain your network” of readers, as Martin suggests, readers will read your blog. Therefore, we cannot blog once or twice, but rather periodically and consistently, otherwise those entries are like web pages that are updated once in a while.

Jenkins, Martin, and Gardner emphasize that we have to reflect, refresh, and have our own voice. The refresh part means also “repeat” and not once, but many, many times. This semester I'm taking 3 classes and all of them require a blog. I hope I can keep up with all three even after December.