Draft:Blog Theory

Blog Theory What is Blog Theory? Blog Theory is a field within media studies that examines the role of blogs in the digital age. It is a way of interpreting blogs through various ideologies and viewpoints, through the lens of different thinkers, each providing distinct frameworks to interpret the phenomenon of blogging within broader socio-technical landscapes. Thinkers such as Marshall McLuhan, Jodi Dean, and McKenzie Wark provide three distinct viewpoints that help us understand blog theory in a much more nuanced manner. What Would McLuhan Say About Blogs? McLuhan’s viewpoint (according to us): McLuhan’s main idea was that the medium is the message, signifying that the message itself is of less importance compared to the way the message is communicated. According to his media tetrads, he would interpret blogs accordingly: Enhance: Blogs enhance individual expression. Everyone can be a journalist now. Democracy and inclusion are amplified — blogs make it possible for everyone to tell their story, rather than only those who traditionally had access to media. Blogs make newspapers more participatory.

Obsolete: Blogs render static websites, the printing press, and traditional newspapers obsolete.

Reverse: Blogs create new problems because now we have too much information, and it becomes harder to discern truth due to conflicting accounts. Opinions often become more dominant than facts, producing echo chambers or insular communities that, while spread out geographically, remain tightly connected digitally.

Retrieve: Blogs retrieve earlier communication forms like BBS (bulletin board systems), zines, listservs, and the tradition of campfire storytelling.

Regarding hot and cold media: Blogs can be seen as a hot medium — dense content, essentially a digital newspaper.

However, blogs can also become cooler because people are allowed to share, like, and comment, thus participating actively in the medium.

"The Blog is the Massage" McLuhan would likely say:

 "The blog is not a message; it is a massage of the self."

Just like he said "the medium is the massage," McLuhan would argue that blogs don't merely transmit information — they reshape the blogger's sense of self.

Every post, comment, like, and share massages the blogger's ego, crafting an identity performance.
Blogging feels like communication, but it’s really self-massage in public.

Jodi Dean: Blogs in the Age of Communicative Capitalism Jodi Dean highlights how capitalism is corrupting digital media.

New electronic communications, such as blogs, also produce massive concentrations of wealth among those who run the platforms. People profit off of our participation in digital forms of communication (such as Facebook), usually through advertising, data monetization, and subscription or bonus services.

Jodi Dean goes on to say that blogs begin to show us that media can turn into an ‘infinite space’: “There’s always another option, link, opinion, nuance, or contingency that we haven’t taken into account…” We can suffer from freedom and limitlessness.

This limitlessness becomes possible when there is no symbolic efficiency, when meaning no longer holds or appears convincing to us, in an era of global incredulity toward meaning.

“Blogging emerges as a practice in communicative capitalism.” Enjoyment persists even when users recognize their exploitation: ("I know very well, but I enjoy it.") In this sense, the id takes over the superego; enjoyment triumphs over rational moral law. Criticisms: The rise of blogs led to difficulty in differentiating between serious blogs and funny blogs. No matter how absurd, someone will still believe it.

Blogs can produce forms of cliques or internet tribes, where there are those who are “in” on it and those who are not, creating new forms of segregation.

Blogs can only exist in a world characterized by the “decline of symbolic efficiency.”

What does this mean?

It means a media space where the rules are unclear and enjoyment prevails. It represents a decline in the paternal law, in the name of democracy.

Dean is critical of the exploitation of people by the higher-ups, and also warns that, because blogs are a cold medium, a simple piece of information can easily be turned into something contradictory through the comments of people, which can escalate into conflicts. McKenzie Wark: Blogs in Gamespace McKenzie Wark specializes in game theory, which, though a different field, is deeply relevant to blog theory. In the era of information capitalism, vectoral power is not just about ownership; it is about shaping the conditions of visibility. Wark identifies two classes within information capitalism: The vectorialist class (akin to bloggers), who commodify information and profit off people reading and engaging with their blogs.

The hacker class (akin to readers or normal users) creates new trends, conversations, and engagements.

This division goes back to Jodi Dean’s argument about information being commodified under communicative capitalism. Hackers/normal people create certain trends or conversations.

Vectorialists/bloggers pick up on that and write about relevant topics, thereby drawing more engagement and exploiting participation. Do the Rules Break Down in Blogs? Do the rules break down in blogs? In games rules break down when some people buy more upgrades, can afford better controllers etc creating a playing field that is not level. Where does this happen for blogs? Bloggers Become Gamers Bloggers become gamers, trapped in cycles of self-promotion, ranking, and agonistic striving. More likes and more follows make bloggers want to post more, trapping them in a cycle.

Just like in a game where completing each level earns you a reward, satisfaction in blogging lies within the likes and followers one gains.
Success is measured numerically.

Life as Gamespace "You are a gamer whether you like it or not, now that we all live in a gamespace that is everywhere and nowhere." Even if you think you are resisting it, you are not — because you are trapped inside the system of gamified life.