Its Graffiti With Punctuation

The title is a line from the movie Contagion, in which the world is faced with a new virus that is quickly spread, higly contagious and deadly. While it was a good movie in my opinion, theres a particular part of the movie that really glued itself to me. That part was when Elliott Gould’s character in frustration spoke “Blogging isn’t writing, its graffiti with punctuation” to Jude Law’s characther who he played as a journalist.

I have been blogging since 2006, when I discovered Blogger.com it was history. I perferred blogs over the traditional website, for news of all kinds. One of the main arguments against blogs is that they are just too opininated. Personally, I like when a blog or website makes its standing clear, it has always bugged me when I notice how over the years a certain website or news organizing is leaning in a certain direction, or simply give favorable coverage on certain things that they claim to be neutral on.

Blogs are pretty open and shut, while they aren’t perfect, the distinction of those opinions is what makes them so great, I think to argue that Blogging isn’t journalism is rather primitive, things being discussed in the “blogosphere” make national news and headlines, sway political campagns, start trends, expose, create or dispel controversies, they literally do it all.

By no means are blogs perfect though, more likely on blogs than on traditional websites or news programs, are radical opinions and ideologies, and while sometimes they can be good things, other times they are anything but. With the right amount of dedication a blog can catch on, then hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting and naive readers can be pumped with all kinds of information; whether its true or not is in the power of the writer, who may or may not have ulterior motives, but even still, blogs cant be ruled out.

They are powerful tools, and its still expanding, gaining more influence, and becoming more than just hobbies, they… we are the future. Traditional journalism could very well be blogging in the future, and that’s where I think the fear comes from. Ordinary people can have the power to reach the masses, no longer are we in the day and age where only the big media corporations can tell a story. Now we have just as much power, and they are afraid of it, and you know what? They should be!