Over the span of 3 days (and one of those days is a holiday), I was instructed to set up 2 blogs by my lecturers. One is for “Alternative Voices and Issues in Mass Communications” class, the other is for “Introduction to Internet Technologies”. This is the former, and yes I’ll be graded for my work here.
To me, it is a bit weird that blogs would be considered as something in the “alternative”. Back when it all started perhaps (*gasp*, I’m THAT old?!), when it is something that would appeal to the youths and frowned at by “older people” and the mainstream media alike.
Today, blogging is the mainstream. Even people in their 80’s blog, just ask Mahathir. Just about everyone with a computer and an internet connection blogs. Ok, maybe not everyone, but enough of them to bump into every few seconds while walking down the busy streets of KL. As for the mainstream media, even The Star uses twitter, never mind blogs and larger media organisations (example: New York Times.
Is blogging still the “alternative”. Maybe. Just by calling the “mainstream media” mainstream, I have just accidentally validated the blog’s status as the alternative. Researchers would still turn to The Star, New Straits Times, and other publications for credible information, and perhaps the more established “new media” outfits like malaysiakini.com and The Malaysian Insider too. But not blogs.
In any case, I’ll give bloggers more credit than the MSM. They don’t charge for crap.
Edit:
Ops, my lecturer works with the MSM too. Am I getting a fail grade? =x
Hindsight sucks
