Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Blog Post #2 : Enter Academia
For this post I'm going to be evaluating a the academic blogs A Walk in the Words, art(h)ist'ry, and Bug Girl's blog.
A Walk in the Words uses a pretty somber look to it. The blue on blue template, while not necessarily a poor design, is definitely not very visually intriguing. While normally I would say this is a major fault of the blog, perhaps a blog that centers its main focus around grammar and linguistics should be text based, and steer away from really visually stimulating images in the foreground. While I'll maintain that the blog may look somewhat boring, the links on the right side of the page are helpful, and I did like the use of images within to post to add a little flair to the entry.
I feel that she establishes credibility by... maintaining a well thought out blog? There are some elements of the blog that link, and directly respond to other language based posts, which is a way of creating credibility. I also think that she has established a tone and voice that shows that she has some authority on the subject matter. Plus, the use of diagrams, and the general language, makes it seem accessible and easy to read in spite of the subject matter.
Overall, I think that this blog works well and keeps up with its academic content aka it's a good example of an academic blog.
I really like the art(h)ist'ry blog! I think that it has a good design, it's simple, but the light color palette is a perfect compliment to the art that is featured on the blog. While the background is very simple, this makes it so that the photos on the blog shine.
I think credibility is established within the context of this blog by the way the author uses other articles and texts and synthesizes them with their own assertions and associations. While I don't have any academic background in art history, I found the information on this blog insightful and I found myself linking it to a few of my friends and bookmarking it. Perhaps then, this can be an element of credibility: if a blog can maintain an academic tone, but still be accessible to a wider audience, then maybe this helps to establish credibility. Either way, art(h)ist'ry is awesome.
The last blog I looked at was Bug Girl's blog. I am not a fan. Design wise, I did not like the way that the blog scrawled along the page, nor did I like green on white type that seemed so squished on the margins. This is just a personal opinion, but I immediately thought it was cluttered and not as engaging as the other two blogs I looked at.
Also, I did not like the comments placed over the pictures. I think maybe this has a lot to do with what I perceive an academic blog to be, but I thought that the photos took away from any academic credibility the blog might have had. In fact, while I can tell that some of the text is very credible, the "images overwhelm me" and make the text seem like a moot point.
So, while I thought that A Walk in the Words and art(hist'ry) did a good job with design and credibility, I felt that Bug Girl's blog fails. That's it for now, signing off— SSS
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Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI found your focus on the visual--especially how colors relate to how you considered the blogs--to be interesting. I was a little surprise to see almost a clean break from your discussion of a blog's visuality and its credibility. Because it seemed that the strongest part of this post talked about the visual, I wonder how (or if) there is a relation between the visual and credibility for you. Interesting thoughts though.
I agree with a lot of what you said. It seems as though we have similar tastes in blogs! I did want to comment on one thing you said: "Perhaps then, this can be an element of credibility: if a blog can maintain an academic tone, but still be accessible to a wider audience, then maybe this helps to establish credibility."
ReplyDeleteI see what you're saying, but I don't know if I agree. Obviously, Art(h)ist'ry is credible--the blogger demonstrates that she is knowledgeable and proves that she is a credible source. What sets her apart from the other academic blogs is her style and tone, which make the blog accessible to non-art historians. But I think that accessibility pertains to readability, not credibility. Each academic blog we read last week is credible in that they are all written by educated/professional individuals. But they are not equally readable due to differing elements of style and layout.
I'll stop before my argument becomes convoluted. Your post was thought-provoking-- I bet we could launch a whole discussion about this in class! Good work :)
I thought it was very interesting that you could take the blog that looked more like a standard academic journal as more academic. Bright colors in Bug Girl's blog really do take away from her credibility. The notions of dryness in old media do seem to carry over to new media.
ReplyDeleteIt appears the drier a blog is, the more accepted as academic it is. Perhaps, that has to do with a sub-conscience thought that new media is not academic.