Reflections on Blogging

Reflecting on the past eight weeks of PWR 2, I've come to the conclusion that blogging isn't altogether a horrible thing. My first reaction when I found out that we had to blog was one of great irritation. I've always thought of blogging as a very crude form of writing, child-like even. I no longer feel that way, because I've seen that blogs can be used not simply as online-diaries, but also as credible sources of information. I was definitely shocked to find that there are reporters that use the blog as a means of communicating up-to-date information on world events. I find it fascinating that people actually find blogs to be secure and credible enough to take seriously some of the information that gets passed along. As for personal use, I've found that blogs can actually be enjoyable to keep up; one can write with substance and style. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the use of blogging in academia, but my gut feeling tells me that it can't be an altogether horrible thing, because we used it in the class and it did not have a noticeable negative influence. The one concern that I have is that the blog might not be taken seriously because it has for many, the connotation of an online diary. A collaborative blog sounds interesting, but how different would it be then an online forum? That I'm not so sure about.

PWR 2 Reponse Article War Games

After reading the article on War Games, I was thoroughly disturbed by what I just realized--that is that games like "America's Army" are actually created for the purpose of increasing enlistment in the US Army. Originally I just thought it was a game created by war-savvy individuals endorsed by the Army, but to have the main motivation behind a video game to be for increasing the ranks of the Army's enlistment is frightening. The comment about what happens in the Middle East ends up showing in the Kuma War game a week later, is a testament to the absurdity of this War Game phenomenon. Personally I've always felt that games aren't a bad form of entertainment, provided that the player understands that the game is after all, simply that, a game. Even more violent FPS(First Person Shooters) and fighting games I believe are not altogether bad, they're simply geared for more adult audiences. But to liken these types of War Games to Electronic forms of Journalism is to make a severe categorical mistake. Journalism informs, that is its purpose, despite what medium is used; games, however are meant to entertain. To say that a medium that is primarily used for entertainment, can alternatively be used for the spread of information is either very naiive or very presumptuous.