Visual Blogs by Meredith Badger

In her essay, Meredith Badger from Royal Melbourne of Technology discusses about the different ways of viewing on the different mediums. In her article she compares paintings, television programs and films with the Internet. Based on her discussion, the Internet is different than the others since it allows our eyes to skim over the screen. With this action, as readers or audiences, we can find the thing that relates to our interests. In other words, on the Internet, the sources are readily available and accessible to us. This function makes the Internet different from the other sources of visual texts, such as films, television programs or paintings. According to her, weblogs -or blogs- are included in this medium. Also, based on her discussion, blogs deliver the information on a daily bases like newspapers. For me, the difference between blogs and newspapers is their reliability. (The information in the blogs are more personal.) Referring back to the issue about what Badger discusses, weblogs function as conjunctions throughout the Internet. Here, her point is that blogs give different opportunities to the writers or creators to use their own personal preference for the representation (photo, personal information, and so on.) Also, I would like to add that blogs provide different opportunities to readers or researchers to choose from. During this process, we generally feel, as readers, we are in face-to-face discussion forms with the voice of individuals. It is obvious that even though this process seems as private, the Internet makes it communal. People place their daily journals or “blogs” for the world to read and no longer keep a sense of privacy in their lives.

Additionally, this article suggests another important information. For instance, blogs do not care about the gender, age, or race of the writer or information provider. Photographs among other images, if they are used, show this in its entire aspect. Not only for this issue, but also for the visual, the article states that images make the statement stronger. At this point, however, Badger provides more information by comparing words and images. For her, images are the tools to fill the gaps in written text or to make more vivid statements. At this point, I definitely agree what she points out and where she is coming from. Image by itself cannot be enough to make the argument in the blogs. Furthermore, images can create the wrong effects, as she exemplifies in her article with three different pictures related to the Iraqis. Starting from her approach, we can say that images can be used to give false information or itself can create the wrong information. This shows the strong impact of the images on the readers or audiences. Therefore, if blogs flourish with images along with the texts, they become more effective, secure, and trustful. Another point that author added, is how unstable images are serialized. Giving more than one image or picture of the same object, but from different dimension and adding different objects to turn this to a representation of a story, as we see in page 8 of the article. Almost like a flip book of images that represent a story line. Although, as mention previously this can be a false representation of the a story, for instance, the example given in the article about the pillow that was left on the side of the steps. Therefore, one image is not helpful to understand the main concept. Moreover, one image can create a conflict to understand the main issue.

As a conclusion, Badger states that image is the key tool to remember the context, even after we read or research it. I definitely agree with her for this point. For my personal experience, visual blogs attract me a lot and they are not possible to forget. For me, as well, one image is not enough to understand the context since everybody can interpret this with their own experience. Also, without text, even though it is more than one image, images are not useful to reach the target.