WHO'S BLOGGING ANYWAY?

Bloggers take front row

My post title is abducted from this month’s ELLE SA page 62, a report by blogger Sandiso Ngubane of The Frock Report. I will commence by saying that it was an interesting read coming from a guy who stands in view from both parties. It got me thinking about my future in this ample and growing blogosphere, how I feel about it and where I fall in it.

When I asked a group of friends if I should take up journalism or marketing next year to add on to my fashion diploma everyone encouraged that I take marketing instead. ‘Anyone can be a writer and you already have a blog, so do marketing’, a friend mentioned. I didn’t take much note of her statement then until after I read ‘Who’s blogging anyway?’  Now I ask myself, is this really what society thinks of our journalists? Is being a qualified writer or journalist as good as the next person with a computer and internet at their disposal? Are bloggers the current and future experts in society who need not sit behind a desk, or be accountable to facts to be taken seriously and heard?

It is truth that blogging is something anyone, skilled or otherwise, can espouse. And in as much as we blog and share ground alongside the high and qualified, a blog is a talking point. If you have a passion then keep a blog about it. The fact you’re involving yourself is enough to feel a part of something – and I don’t know what is more important to human existence than belonging. Being true to yourself  and things around you that is the essence of blogging - or rather that’s what it should be. I chose to create a personal fashion, art and lifestyle blog because such things move you away from being the “all talk but no facts” or the “no ethics frats who clout the media”. I love the idea of being published at the click of a button and also understand its dangers when personal opinions cannot be tracked back to facts. Sadly though, factual reports are of no matter or importance to a lot of our fellow bloggers which is why such articles and stories come up at large against us. The latest front rows at our favorite fashion shows have us understanding that the fashion blogosphere is to be taken seriously. These young and brights, with what seems like money and time on their hands, do indeed have their say in todays fashion industry.Being deemed worthy of these seats clearly has set the Now second and third rows on a furious spin judging by people’s opinions and comments in articles about bloggers, this however must mean that we are doing something right despite all this bashing. "Nowadays when we do events as many as a third of the media represented are bloggers”, says Ian Manley to the Mail & Guardian. What is it about bloggers?

I blog because of my passion towards life, art and fashion, posting about things around me and those close to my heart; I may not be as consistent in posts as I'd like it to be, because frankly, I actually luxuriate in living my life a little more than posting to people about it.

Sandiso disclosed, ‘As I grew as a blogger, my diary filled up with events to attend, press releases flowed into my inbox and interview requests trickled in. I became an unlikely fashion ‘expert’.’ And African Fashion Awards nominee Milisuthando Bongela (Miss Milli B) who was nominated for her blog and not her work in her mainstream media as a journalist prove it obvious that blogging carries a brighter spark and tireless fans - that soon metamorphose into bloggers themselves. The audience really does matter. I advocate University of Witwatersrand journalism professor Anton Harber when he says that blogging should be viewed as a supplement to journalism. There is no use fighting a medium that throws open the public sphere, allowing everyone to take part in public debate.

As fashion students we are encouraged to get into this sharing and interacting scene, putting ourselves out there. Each blogger carries in their work a different print and style to the other, we have various motives and reasons for blogging and those who chose to use and deem us worthy of front rows at their events have the right to do just that without question or permission, be it from the media or elsewhere. Every field has corruption hence the rules and regulations that stand to be followed, unfortunately this sphere of influence doesn’t carry much of that and till such rules have been released…deal with it. Who are these bloggers anyway? These bloggers are the people around you who have much to say. Take your seat or join them.