Topic 2, week 2 part A

After discussing the issues surrounding 'new' media culture in my group, I found topic 2 to be particularly pertinent in analysing our new experiences with both blogs and forums.

In a way web forums can become an online conversation. Forums allow synchronous communications in the way of an instant reply if the other person is online, this can continue for as long as the conversation lasts.
Lacking in this online community, however, are the social cues and non-verbal communication that you get interpersonally in ‘meatspace’. It can also be asynchronous allowing for people to check it at a later date, or even have some thinking time over the answer they will give. This would, I think, inevitably be a different answer to one in a swift conversational reply.

In seminars usually, I would simply voice any opinions I had surrounding the topic, however the media blog gives me time to think through how and what I want to say and gives me the opportunity to change it. In forums, conversation seems to take a logical ABAB approach, whereas in ‘meatspace’ there are often overlaps and fillers.

I think it’s easy for people who are shy in social situations to take a backseat in seminars and allow more confident characters to overshadow them, their intellectual contribution lost. In web forums and blogs, however, communication can seem less daunting and it is a chance for everyone to have an equal opportunity to speak, regardless of their self confidence. This is also helped by the fact that it can be asynchronous, so that you can see the opinions of everyone on the course and aren’t limited by the 1-2 hour timeslot.

Also, face-to-face seminars can snowball from one topic, to another, which I agree can be perhaps less relevant. However, this doesn’t tend to happen on the blogs or forums and I think bouncing off of each other’s ideas in a ‘live’ or synchronous way can be beneficial to the expantion of your thoughts on certain topics.


Any thoughts?