:: Open representations (Part II) ::

Inverting web design

In Part I of this topic, I discussed the absence of images in the blogosphere and argued that this puts stronger emphasis on the textual content of each blogspace.

In this post, I want to discuss how the emphasis on the text begins at the beginning, when a blogger is managing their blog.

Creating a blog using a system like the one here, Blogger, is suprisingly easy to do. You fill in a short registration form, choose a name for your blog, decide if you want Blogger to provide you with the space or you will use space you own from elsewhere on the net. (You'll note by the little icon down there on the left that I let Blogger host I-Space) With these three steps completed, voila! You're in.

The interface is very clean and white, rather like the word processsing packages we are all used to using. While there is a bit of HTML needed to add in fancier formatting types, the basics are provided behind buttons for the beginning blogger.

Adding a graphical interface that is well organized, attractive and keeps the emphasis on the content is not usually an easy feat. However, because of the way services like Blogger are setup, your textual content stays independant of the rest of your blog. That means that to add your interface, you need only browse through a list of templates and choose the one you wish to apply to your own space. A few more clicks and that's it.

So what does all this have to do with Stuart Hall and his ideas on representation? The idea of the image being dominant, of it being the controlling factor in putting out meaning, of letting it dominate text, of letting it represent the message, is thwarted in the blogosphere. With the emphasis in blogs staying squarely on the words and phrases and paragraphs and textual posts, the imagery and colour and visual organization are subordinated to the message. Their purpose, if present, is to provide highlight and organization for the words, rather than the words supporting the images, as is the case elsewhere on the corporate Internet, and indeed elsewhere generally in the media's mediums.

It would seem to me, then, that there is less chance of mis-representation. While I am not naive enough to believe that no one ever misinterprets a textual message, I do believe it is more difficult to do.

Thus, the bloggers' are able to keep the limelight focused squarely on their ideas and intentions.

In the next part of this topic, due later this week, I'll discuss how things are with images and representation outside the blogosphere.