Bloggers and Ethical Fun

Rebecca Blood's ideas on Weblogs are quite interesting. We have talked a great deal about blogs bring about an immediate source of information, but contain a great deal of "junk" as well. This junk can be misinformation, trolls, and people just not taking ideas seriously on the Web. Blood points out how "the weblog's greatest strength — its uncensored, unmediated, uncontrolled voice — is also its greatest weakness." I really like this idea simply because I think that the more people are attracted and absorbed into Web Blogs, the less grip of reality they lose because information becomes jumbled around and the truth can be lost. I think this is what Blood is also referring to with this statement. Bloggers have no attachment or dependency to outside factors like the newspaper or television industries do. Advertisements and endorsements are not necessary for bloggers to maintain control over their respective web pages, so the material within those pages can pretty much be whatever they want it to be, regardless of Web ethics. It's like Blood says, "rumors spread because they are fun; corrections rarely gain much traction because they aren't as fun." This is the case with online bloggers who use their blogs as legitimate information sources; lies and misinformation can both be interpreted as facts, and no one may take the time to undo the errors that are causing a great deal of damage online.