chandrasutra's blogger interviews

this is a fun idea... let's participate.  it's better than studying for history, bien sur.

Bloggers on bloggers:

1) Why do you blog? for fun, really. some of my friends are more concerned with buying clothes at urban outfitters and being really emo and judging everyone by their music selection. it sucks. also, i dont like discussing politics with my overly-political parents. this is all really cliche university shite - bimbo friends, parents who think im a hippie.   

2) Where do you find your inspiration? whatever is making me tick that day, really. i find critical theory pretty inspiring. democracy is nothing without deliberation, and voices need to be unfettered for deliberation to be truly democratic.

3) What blogs do you read why do you like those blogs? detachedobserver.blogspot.com is a favourite cos he blogs on international stories, as well as obscure blogosphere crap in the usa that i dont really care to wade through unless he is narrating. sinisterthoughts.blogspot.com and crawlacrosstheocean.blogspot.com are thought-provoking and policy-based. andrew coyne used to be fun before he sold out...grr.

4) Many Big Media journalists have attempted to discredit blogger by saying we're "diarists", questioning our "credibility" etc what do you have to say to them? If you've already written on this please provide a link to your post.

academically, i think some of us have more credibility than others - people who use a lot of links to media stories, primary sources, govt agencies and ngo's are doing tons of research and being a uni student, im inclined to say research = cred. i think im first and foremost a diarist and i really think downplaying the "diarist" aspect is unfortunate since personal accounts have credibility in their own right.

5) Beyond blogging vs. journalism. Bloggers need to get rid of Big Media frames and frame blogs in our own terms. To that end, what are the frames we can use to define blogging/participatory media according to our own terms?

well, parallel blogging is boring unless the blogger is either really colourful or has done a lot of research. really, though, blogging will always co-exist with the msm and at the end of the day, most of us will just be reflecting on the msm/big blogs, anyway. there are always going to be big fish in the pond of the public sphere, who dictate its parametres and everyone's role in it. ... just keep blogging and dont worry about all this anthony giddens reflexive project of the self nonsense. the second we try to universalize and deliniate blogging, we run the risk of excluding or downplaying important contributions. 'blogger' should not be some kind of identity shaping our posts or perspectives. blogging is the medium, that's all. unless youre engaging in literary analysis, just look at blogs as people and not a genre, and everything will be ok.

6) What are your "desert island" 3 favourite/most important (i.e., that you feel everybody should read) posts of all time either from your own blog or somebody else's?

i cant pick!

ADDED: 7) how long have you been blogging?
since september 01, when i moved to ottawa for university. my current blog was born around the last federal election. dont read my old blogs!

Comments

[Mel]

Hey thanks for doing the interview (although I see you didn't link it back to me - tisk tisk!). I invite you to drop it into my blog as a comment on my original post (or even trackbacking would be good). I like what you said in question 4 and would say that some bloggers, particularly academic bloggers, have better researched and constructed posts than some journalists (of course before there were battles between bloggers there were battles between academics and journalists ... folks have forgotten this already).

[ainge]

awww mel, i did link it, its just that im an idiot and assumed everyone would be able to tell that all my small-caps words are links.... heh.

[Mel]

Hmmmm.... you're using all caps in a size that is the same as your lowercase text. If you bolded it that would stand out more.

Actually the problem is that you've used a medium grey for your links (which is nearly impossible to see BTW) and a very light shade for visited links. In terms of basic usability grey links with black text doesn't work. It's not clear. You're not an idiot; you just haven't given a lot of consideration to your linked text.

For aesthetic reasons I once used a really nice medium grey green for my links. Trouble is it was wayyyy too hard to see. This becomes problematic when you're trying to establish what text is yours and what text you're citing. One of the reasons we use web usability is to make things easier for readers. Not doing so sends a message that you 'don't really care'. I'm sure that's not the message you intend but it's kinda the unintended result ;-)