Blogs and the Public Sphere.

The relationship between Blogosphere and the Public Sphere is interconnected. When we post a blog topic, it is subsequently jointed into the public community.  As a matter of fact, I believe that Public Sphere existed because of Blogosphere.

Any content we produced through our blogs, will generally and inevitably be going to the public sector of the community. It is the exact reason why most people write blogs, so they can inspire other people that reads their opinion and be intrigued and interested to see the topic from other's point of view. Although there are advantages and disadvantages of posting blogs online, I will get onto this in a later stage. My definition of the Public Sphere is that it's a network for communicating information and points of view. The ideas stored and given eventually becomes public opinion. Any issue/topic posted in any blog can be raised for a rational debate.

The advantages of posting blogs online to public community are the inspiration to other people using our words and ideas relating to the topic, the motivation and inspiration we can give to others to become more successful and/or confident through our post and it can help people understand us better by explaining our knowledge and experiences through our it. It also helps to gain our reputation through our blogs as more people enjoy their reading means more people will be follow and become more interested. Many bloggers around the world are known for their recognition by how many people reads their content and how many people commented on it.

The disadvantages of posting blogs online to public community are the concern of theft for intellectual property, plagiarism, copyright issues material and threats due to opinion differences. Although some people may not believe it, but these things actually do happen. Either they're lazy or feel intimidated, some people do steal other people's work and publish them as their own (plagiarism). In other cases, there are people that feel threatened by the blog posts as they feel the topic is too vulnerable and too attacking and therefore they retaliate in a threatening manner.

But what we have to think of is that no matter what we do, if we decide to post ANY content online of our work, it inevitably becomes public. Once it's out there, it stays there. None of us can do anything to stop it. We may remove it or report if somebody steals it, but somebody else might beat us to it. It definitely is one of the very first things to consider before we post anything online.

Photo Source (1):
http://capucinegros.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/jenny-holzer-0.jpg?w=545

Photo Source (2):
http://kalipoon.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/new-blog.png

References:
Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Highfield, T., and Nicolai, T. 2011 'Mapping the Australian Networked Public Sphere', Social Science Computer Review, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 277-287.