Blog v Wiki

Blogs and wiki's are two of the most popular and widely used forms of online content creation. They are similar, yet often times serve different purposes. Kathy E. Gill describes blogs as "participatory journalism" in her article "How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere?" This idea of blogs being a form of journalism is one of the major points of difference and is described in the article as, "Participatory journalism is a concept that embraces an expanded two-way communication between established media and readers, allowing readers to interact with journalists and news organizations."This two way interaction between the reader and the creator of the content is unique to blogging and creates a sense of community. Additionally, blogs tend to focus on a certain area or subject that carries a certain level of interest among readers. Wiki's are online platforms that can be edited and changed by multiple users. It is a place that is constantly changing and is similar to blogs in the sense that it is community oriented. However, where they differ is that wiki's can be changed at anytime whereas blogs cannot. Blogs can only be commented on, but not changed once posted. In the article, "More on how to build your own Wikipedia" the author explains how there should be someone called a gardener that takes care of the wiki to groom it to keep it relevant by saying,  "gardeners should not be shy about pruning to keep lists and entries from becoming unwieldy."

The convergence of media in this new technology age has been arguably the single most progressive factor in the advancement of media in general. With newspapers using online blogs and journals to be accessible to their readers, they are not only converging old and new media but also making it a collaborative experience for the readers. Even workplaces are seeing the convergence of networks by having online communication programs that connect the employees and is a form of a microblog. An example of this would be Slack, an app that helps teams collaborate, communicate, and keep up to date.

Thinking of a new use for a wiki is pretty difficult since it has been used for many purposes by now. However, if I were to use it for anything, I think it would be a great idea for film students to upload their unfinished works to a wiki of other filmmakers. Once uploaded, it would be open for editing and comments from others and the original filmmaker could either use the suggestions and edits, or just go back to what they originally had planned for their film. This would be a good collaborative and innovative way to use a wiki.