Blogs aren't just for gossip anymore. The blogging phenomenon, once considered anything but professional, has emerged in recent years as a means of scholarly academic research as well as personal communication.
At Tufts, blogs have found their way into academic curricula, particularly in political science. Whether students are writing the blogs (short for Web logs) themselves, using others' during research, or giving feedback on those of their peers, blogging has emerged as an integral component of modern life.
"Blogging is the new wave of communication; it allows one to gain better first-hand knowledge and insight into what's going on in the world," said Katy Bondy, a second-year Fletcher graduate student.
Bondy joins 10 of her fellow students in keeping a blog through the Fletcher School Web site, at http://blogs.fletcher.tufts.edu, detailing her experiences both with International Relations and with the school in general. Bondy's blog is designed to inform prospective students interested in what Fletcher has to offer, but its public accessibility enables her blog to benefit other audiences as well.
"My family reads my blog and it gives them an idea of what my life is like here," Bondy said.
The Fletcher School's blogging Web page also includes links to faculty blogs, which often include the professors' individual commentaries about world events.
Fletcher School Associate Professor of International Politics Daniel Drezner keeps a blog that he updates almost daily. Drezner said that reading other blogs led him to create one himself.
"I was reading blogs before I started my own, and thought they were interesting," Drezner said. "Then Sept. 11 happened, and all of these blogs concerning international relations came into the forefront."
Unlike some professors who use their blogs as a classroom resource, Drezner maintains his only as a personal commentary piece, not assigned reading. "I actually try not to use my own blog in terms of my teaching," he said.
Although Drezner doesn't require students to read his blog, he does inform them of it.
Drezner said blogs have two distinct advantages over other media outlets. "The first advantage is interactivity. Second, usually the writing in blogs is punchier - it is also less formal and more accessible to people who haven't gone to college," he said. "They are more personal and conversational than most media outlets."
However, according to Associate Professor of Political Science Richard Eichenberg, some informational blogs can be considered scholarly references, contingent on their credibility and lack of bias.
Eichenberg called blogs "essential reading material" for his classroom, yet he encourages his class to discriminate among reliable and non-reliable sources. "All scholars and students should practice source skepticism when reviewing online research sources and blogs," Eichenberg said.
Eichenberg noted that the use of "source skepticism" will simultaneously weed out what he referred to as subjective "rant and rave" blogs and lead to reliable media references, especially among political science blogs.
"I do think political blogs are extremely useful, specifically in a class like the one I teach on public opinion and foreign policy," Eichenberg said. He uses blogs, namely the political polling blog www.pollster.com, as a fundamental part of the course curriculum.
"I have a link to www.pollster.com on my course syllabus, and in some of my classes, looking at the blog a couple times a week is a requirement," Eichenberg said. "The best readings concerning contemporary politics aren't in some textbooks - they're on pollster.com."
Eichenberg said he isn't unique in his use of blogs: he refers to them as a "major part of the political world."
"They have become a subject of study," he said.
One of Eichenberg's students, senior and political science major Michael Leibner, has heeded Eichenberg's words, and is writing his senior thesis on the sites.
"The potential for blogs is huge," Leibner said. "Everything becomes more accessible when it's done online."
Leibner has noted that such accessibility has expanded the role of blogs. "It's also important to note that politicians are paying attention to blogs these days as campaign tools," Leibner said. According to an April 2 article in the New York Times, internet campaigning is on the rise.
But blogs aren't just useful in political science. Even though academic blogs have emerged rapidly in recent years, the prevalence of personal blogs has still remained strong. Not only have Web sites such as LiveJournal.com and Xanga.com continued to draw new users, but some of the social networking sites have followed suit as well, with MySpace.com's "blogs" and Facebook.com's "notes."
Tufts is no exception. Many students use personal online journals to document their daily lives and keep tabs on their friends. The popular blogging Web site Livejournal.com hosts several Tufts communities, among them "tttufts," which boasts 206 members at press time, "tufts2009," "tufts10" for members of the Class of 2010, "tufts_alumni" and "jumbosatlarge" for abroad students. In an era dependent on technology, blogs have become an unrivaled staple in day-to-day communication.
"Especially now that all of my friends are in college, I can look at their journals and still feel like a part of their life," freshman Broghan Helgeson said. "Blogs have completely revolutionized how I communicate."
Some students even keep themed personal blogs, like junior Tina Ye, who has kept a cooking blog (www.sugardew.com/food) for the past year. [Editor's note: Tina Ye is also writes the weekly "Campus Cooking" series for the Daily.] Ye updates her blog almost daily with anecdotes about her experience teaching herself to cook.
"I like online journals because you can get feedback and establish a community," Ye said. "Blogging creates a huge network, which definitely plays a part in garnering a devoted audience."
