The Art of Spoken Word

Blogging has systematically changed the use of spoken word amongst the masses in the new era. The way information has been distributed before has not been as widely accessibleas it is now. Blogging has given people a platform to promote their ideas and stances to a broader audience that is available. 

Going online now is not used simply to chat with others, send emails or to play games - blogging has definitely become one of those things you can do as well. I will admit I am a self-proclaimed closet blog reader. It started out every so often at first but when it is compelling and interesting to you it takes a life of its own. Truth be told I was out of the country this summer for 6 weeks with scarce access to the internetand yet I found myself checking certain blogs. The common things I checked when I could was: myTrent, Gmail, and sadly but surely a blog that I love reading. It has become a guilty pleasure of mine and integrated itself into my life. And I am fully aware that its not just me but many people find themselves checking everyday sometimes every hour, its somewhat of an addiction you cannot kick. 

According to Wikipedia the difference between blogging and what twitter is that, "Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family and is much faster than e-mailing or writing. This form of social media lends to an online generation already too busy to keep in touch." I did end up making a twitter account and found myself not to enjoy it as much as blogging. It seemed very similar to the Facebook application of your status updates where you can tell people what your doing at that moment. So much and so little can be written in 140 characters but nothing compelling enough to understand what one is thinking which I think is the advantage to blogging over twitter. However for family members who do not have time to email and whatnot then yes I can see the advantage of twitter. One basic disadvantage I think of Twitter is some people who become intertwined in the whole aspect of letting others know every single thing of their lives, such as getting up from bed or going to have dinner. Where a blog is a choice by the reader to invest the time in reading on the material and the impression I got from twitter that notifications were sent to the people in your friends corner. 

  Good blogs are maintained regularly by the poster and put inc hronological order starting from the newest to the oldest posts to make it easier. Many use tags so you can go back and find something more easily weeks later as opposed to a search. They can involve audio, video, images and hyperlinks to other websites as well. I have seen that some people instead of becoming a webmaster for a fansite use a blog as a way to publish their stories about the things they are interested in as opposed to creating a layout for an actual fansite. 

Blogging has really integrated itself in the current media as well. In the past two weeks I have seen it addressed on numerous shows. On two TV shows I saw fictional characters reading about themselves on PerezHilton. On the new 90210 one of the characters has a 'Perez' type blog but talks about her classmates instead and the ongoings at their school. And on two other shows I saw Perez Hilton making appearances to explain the consequences of gossip and how many things can be misconstrued. 


One of the blogs I examined was in fact one of my dedicated blogs that I read, Perez Hilton the self proclaimed "Queen of all media." Many people enjoy the trashy magazines as they are inexpensive and a way to escape reality to bemuse yourself with someone elses faults other than your own. It may not be a positive way to lead your life but nonetheless it's sometimes the little things that keep you sane. Instead of regularly buying an UsWeekly, InTouch and many other gossip rags that may only be $2.50 each, they begin to add up if bought regularly. Perez Hilton has found a way to facilitate his website as a mainstream way to find out information about celebrities that is open source. You don't even need an internet connection, if you've got a phone you could get feeds from his website, for a low cost of course. Nonetheless he has even heightened his blog to that of a syndicated radio show which includes updates from his blog if you don't have the time to read his posts. He does not use the tag functionality like most blogs do but he does have a search engine that makes it sometimes easier but also difficult as well. He also has the comment section and the permalink so you can share that particular post with anyone.

The inaccuracy of Perez's blog may be true as it is for most media outlets but compared to the sugar coated information we are fed by tabloid magazines and celebrities that have colluded with media outlets, Perez is a fresh way of getting information from another source. His information is never done in a matter where anyone is exempt from his mockery. While some gossip rags have deals with certain celebrities for advertising and many other reasons that they do not always give out the true story of what is going on. No celebrity is given any special treatment they should be open game for their visibilityas he puts it. This was best described in a weekly globe and mail article on him where he says that "his mission is to make the world a better place, to shine a light on stars behaving badly, and to castigate those who don't 'get it right' – who vomit in public, who are a mess, who flash their lack of panties, and so on." Truth be told the way he exploits people may not affect me personally and my lack of empathy may not be quite a lot as it should be but I think it is for good reason. Celebrities, actors, and musicians have been glamorized in a way that has been detrimental to our society. I think seeing them in a more public light as real people is good for society to grow. Many young girls see the glamorized pictures in magazines, TV and videos and don't see the truth behind it all. It feels as though celebrities are dehumanized and thats how we perceive them. I believe his site and many others have opened up the truth in many celebrities lives and makes it easier to understand why they do the things that they do. The difference is with those magazines they are trying to sell a story trying to make a profit, bogging is open source this man has nothing to gain by fabricating stories other than people visiting his site, but most of the time he has proof to back up his information unlike many gossip rags. Case in point much of 2007 was the downfall of Britney Spears as she failed at being a musician and a mother. The paparazzi lived for her antics and society desired to see a star fall. As sad as it is, human nature enjoys to watch people fail especially those put up on a pedestal. Many of the reasonings for why she was acting out could not be understood by anyone. On Februrary 5, 2008 Perez Hilton put up a blog that started a media frenzy. It was entire declaration to the court by Britney Spears mother about her allegations against her daughter's manager. It can be seen here. Shocking excerpts basically was said that her manager had been drugging her and feeding her cocktails containing pills these past couple months that quite possibly started to explain her bizarre behaviour. In some ways that declaration humanized a celebrity where many young teens today do not exactly see. They think their lives are perfect and no starlet can do no wrong. But many times their lives are so far from perfect that we could not even begin to comprehend.

Perez Hilton not only gives you up-to-date information at no cost but it has seemingly integrated itself into every day lives and has changed the entertainment industry. In trashy magazines a lot of the time the truth is skewed or already doctrinated by celebrities themselves to promote a certain image so that they can somewhat control the media before it controls them. When certain photos are so clearly staged, Perez is there to call them out on it. I also think its useful because he does not just report about stars he also talks about politics and ongoing national news throughout the world. There are certain pieces that are funny, bizarre and sad. At least once a week I see him report on a charity and why its deserving of our help. I find the site has a broad spectrum and cannot be pinpointed on one issue. Perez Hilton is called the queen of all media for a reason. 

The next two blogs I examined are a lot different as they seem to focus on one particular aspect. This one in a sense is more of a business as it is more professional as this is her job. At E!Online Kristin Dos Santos has a blog where she talks about TV shows with the help of her reporters and interns. The site can be accessed here, titled "Watch With Kristin." When I was younger I did not consider this to be a blog as blogs weren't as fully recognized but as I later saw this was no different than any other. Every Friday she would post a lengthy blog about favourite TV shows and spoilers to come. Sometimes there would be videos with castmembers and many other tidbits. Kristin Dos Santos is actually widely known throughout the entertainment industry and knows a lot of the creators for many shows. She has many yearly staples on her blog that set her apart from other sites. When new shows begin in the fall she has the Save it or Sink It voting poll, about shows that are worth watching for the impending year. She also makes sure to blog about underrated shows that should be given the benefit of the doubt so they do not get axed so early on in the year. Furthermore every May when networks are trying to decide which shows will be granted a new season she puts up a poll asking viewers to vote for which show they think should stay. Whoever wins she ends up writing a heart-warming letter begging the creators and the network of that show to keep the show for the following year. Many times shows have been granted another season due to her letters and support from fans. In recent years her website has changed dramatially and she now updates throughout the day so the content is much more up-to-date. Since she is known throughout the industry her spoilers are always accurate and it is a open source to find out about your favourite shows. Much like any blog she uses the tags function so you can find updates by TV show name. This one is much different as it is supported by E!Online so it is different from Perez's as she does not exactly talk badly about any stars, and there is rarely grammaticallyincorrect sentences as it is a platform for TV shows to be promoted by her blog. In a way its a give and take stars take part in her blogs for free publicity pertaining to their shows. 

The third blog I examined was "Go Fug Yourself" co-written by two fashion lovers Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks. I stumbled upon this website in grade 10. I used to think it was a small unknown blog but have seen in recent years to have exponential growth of fans on the internet. Most recently I saw them in an article for the Guardian in March 2008 as regarded as one of the world's 50 most powerful blogs. The word fugly was coined by the masses in the 2004 cult hit Mean Girls. It basically means a more derogatory word of using the word ugly by pairing it with a swear word without actually saying it. When I was younger I would occasionally read the site when I was in the mood for a good laugh. The two writers known as the Fug Girls they basically mock celebrity decisions for certain outfits for what they were wearing. Simply its UsWeekly's "What were they thinking column" on a daily basis. But as opposed to just posting the picture and posting some thoughts, it is actually cleverly written, witty and very amusing. No star is safe from their "fugging" as they call it. They even have a Go Fug Yourself FAQ where they explain fugly "is not just extreme ugliness because 'ugly' is something that refers to unchangeable condition but one that which people can rise. They state the different of fugly is that a self-inflicted state where no one seems to excel at dwelling in the depths of fug quite like pretty people with money to spare and little sense of how to spend it." Their material is absolutely captivating and so amusing with a lot of thought still put in it. Its not just a random string of pictures where they mock people they have regular columns such as Ask Aunt Fugly where they tell you how you can fug your lives just as the stars do as well. Somtimes they even write an endearing letter to a starlet in a bemusing way to tell them to simply change their horrendous clothing choices because they want them to succeed but their clothing choices seem to somehow be derailing their careers. Fug the Cover is usually ridiculous magazine covers where they contemplate how did that starlet was able to rotate their head a full 360 degrees - with the help of photoshopping of course. They also have Random Fug which is usually just a slew of C,D list celebrities or unknowns. Celebrity Terror Watch is usually certain stars who refuse to get rid of their staple items, the most recent one has been Lindsay Lohan not wearing anything but leggings for the past year. The most amusing is when they have two starlets standing next to each other and they post imagined dialogues between celebrities on the red carpet that are always quite far-fetched but still hilarious. But its not all poking fun they do have the optimistic Well Played column where there has been a repeat offender by a star but has taken maybe some of their criticisms to consideration and have actually come out with a promising ensemble.  The most entertaining of course is around award season where there is just a mass amounts of outfits make fun of. There success has been across the board as they came out with a book called the Annual Fug Awards in February 2008. It has been refreshing to see a site like this as very similar to Perez. Gossip magazines most of the time commend stars for their outrageous outfit choices as they can do no wrong. Its nice to see a different take on it in a comical way. Go Fug Yourself hasn't changed the fashion industry dramatically but it is still a staple in the blogging community. 

 I found that Blogger had an easy software to deliver your content onto the web. The only thing I did not like was the box where you could write your post, I found it somewhat small and aggravating to use to look back at what you had written a couple lines before. Halfway through when Opera closed on me it was annoying but I enjoyed that they save their drafts frequently as Gmail does, so it was not that big of a concern. All in all I really enjoyed this activity because it helped me realise how much blogging really has revolutionized how media is accessible in this day and age. It was also interesting to look at different blogs on the blogger website through the Google search. I never fully realised how many blogs were active until now. I remember when we were younger there were platforms such as Xanga, Livejournal and such but I had not realised the multitude of blogger today.