Blog: Bog v Wiki

Blogs and wikis are both information sharing platforms that are available to anyone. However, the main difference between blogs and wikis is who the authors are. Blogs are created and run by individuals- the author of a blog is the one who decides what is being shared and how. Blogs are well known to have a more personal approach in terms of the information being shared.
Whereas, a wiki is a collaborative sharing platform that is more useful than blogs in terms of collaborative information between groups (eg. corporations and interest groups), in which every member gets to share information or even to edit existing info created by others as well.

In a blog, the author is generally allowed to post whatever they want. Whereas in wikis this is not always the case. According to Cohen on " Wikipedia to Limit Changes to articles on People" in 2009, wikis' "flagged revisions" feature will only allowed contributions to be added after they were revised by a volunteer editor. Cohen also states that millions of Americans visit Wikipedia every month. Therefore, flagged revisions would actually help prevent anonymous users from creating false content and/or from editing existing information with irrelevant, sometimes unreliable data.

Blogs, that are more personal than wikis, could also make a difference when it comes to the information being shared. In his article "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid", Michael Wilson explains how a blog actually helped lead to drug raid because users where sharing their personal thoughts and talking about what was happenings in the Bay Ridges' streets.

It can be said that both blogs and wikis can make it a lot easier for people to share and receive information.

Social Media and Politics: Contributing or Ruining Democracy?

I chose to do my project on "Social Media and Politics: Contributing or Ruining Democracy?".

I believe this is a very interesting topic to discuss, especially in today's world where digital media and social networking is available to almost everybody. I plan to start off by providing some background information on how social networking had changed and how its use has increased over time. Then I would discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the use of social networking in politics - how in contributes or ruin democracy. Discuss the concepts of privacy and publicly in social media and how the impact both positively and negatively the political system and whether or not it influences voter's decisions. And give some examples about the impact of social media in politics. Finally I will summarize my discoveries and give my thoughts about my findings.