Friday, September 30, 2011

PostSecret: Blogging – giving everyone a voice


Blogging has completely revolutionized the individual’s voice. With the click of a button any person can become an author or have their voice and ideas heard. From this innovation came the idea for one man’s art project – to collect secrets from anonymous senders – this simple blog idea has turned into an empire. Frank Warren of PostSecret has become “the most trusted stranger”, through his blog he has been able to reach out to thousands of people and help connect ideas, feelings, and emotions of complete strangers. To take his idea a step further he has turned the blog (which is updated once a week) into an iphone app in which individuals can upload their secrets directly to their phones. The way technology is consistently changing and becoming more and more accessible has make it even easier then before to have your voice heard (anonymously or not).

The success and volume that PostSecret has reached has turned my interest to the blogging industry and how it has changed creative and distribution practices by creating a more accessible avenue for individuals to showcase and share their work and interests. I hope to look at this more specifically in contrast to the exclusiveness of the film and television industry. On the Internet everyone can be a star or author, so what makes one blog more successful then the next?

PostSecret is also only one man’s project and there are thousands of other people who have created blogs about their interests (cooking, film, political, etc) and I want to examine how they have impacted other “strangers” to share their opinions and ideas.

Main Points of Interest:

1. The effect that the blogging industry has had on individual’s voices.

2. The success and positive outcomes that Frank Warren has had through his innovative idea.

3. The comparison between the blogging industry and the film/television industry. What it takes to enter each one and the audiences that each have the capability to reach.

4. What other blogs have become successes and what is it about their projects or ideas that have caught the attention of stranger’s?

4 comments:

  1. Frank Warren was really interesting when he came to speak last week! I bet this will be an awesome project. I'll be interested to see what your outcomes are!

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  2. kate, this is a really interesting project. blogging is a whole new medium that is pretty recent to media industries. one interesting thing may be how blogs get into other media industries. Some of them turn into books and movies, like the Julie and Julia movie, though i know your focus is post secret. love the idea

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  3. I think your fourth question is the most interesting. How does a blog become a success? Because there are multiple blogs about the same things out their, yet some rise to the top while others fade away. I sounds like a really good topic to look at

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  4. This is a really interesting topic idea. Everyone has their own voice but what makes certain blogs more "made for television" than others. What I really like about this idea is that it covers many spectrums of the media industry: Internet, Blogging, TV, and Movies. We have talked about this idea of multiple sites of productivity and I think that this applies here. The audience not only becomes an author but they become a producer. PostSecret is a great example of a blog to study.

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