Rettberg Ch 4-7

Blog and participatory media provide opportunities for people to publish and broadcast their ideas, ongoing events, and tell stories. In the Ch.4, Rettberg discussed the issue whether blogging is journalism or not. She mentioned that the difference between journalists and bloggers is that journalism is reliable and objective depending on institutional credibility and blogger is subjective, emotional and independent relying on personal authenticity. However Pew researchers stated that “bloggers engage in practices associated with journalism: directly quoting sources, fact checking , posting corrections , receiving permission to post copyright material and linking to original source materials out of the blog” (cited from Rettberg p.88). Generally speaking, bloggers obey the most of the regulations of journalism. Furthermore, Rettberg asserted that “ how could a individual writer with not credentials be more than a professional trained journalist wiring for a well established publications with a staff of editors and fact checkers and not least , a reputation to protect?” (p.92). Thus, we need to rethink about the legitimate definitions of journalists and bloggers.

Further, Rettberg pointed out that the primary function of blogging is not to report the fact but to present the reflection of reality. Bloggers use participatory media to share their feeling on current events, make connections with the same interests of others, discourse their opinions about occurrence regardless the geographical boundaries. In the book, Rettberg mentioned the boundary between fiction and deception using the examples of kaycee Nicole and lonelygirlIe which were not explicitly announced as fictional blogs but turn out to be fiction. The fictional characters in both cases are interpreted as being real and the participants are truly believed their fictional world. Sometimes viewers and readers developed their trust on the basis of their perceptions of bloggers’ sincerity. If the narrative structure of a blog is unauthentic, the readers and viewers will become rage and loss their trust on the blog.

In addition, Rettberg argued that blogs can be used as a marketing tool to promote products, to improve customer relationship, and to establish a presence on the web environment. Some Bloggers can share and exchange the idea on certain products and provide up to date information and links to make money. Rettberg stated that the role of commercial blogging in corporation’s marketing strategies is to maintain trust with their reader for branding and customer relations. Bloggers employed the advertisements on blogs, micropatronage, and sponsored posts to generate incomes. From customer point of view, commercial blogs provide some useful customer feedback on specific products and services, especially for new customers. When we want to make travel arrangement, we usually look at trip advisor to find traveler’s review and opinions.