HW 11:Applying Graff, Chapter 6 to "Making Global Voices Heard"

When reading the pages of, "Making Global Voices Heard," pages 325-333, there were various blogging websites that were introduced throughout the text. There was once in particular which I found to be very interesting. Mackinnon states that, “There are three Chinese-language blog hosting services that are run by Chinese companies, including one that is run by Isaac Mao.” (Burstein and Kline 328). He is probably the best known Chinese blogger outside of China because he blogs both in Chinese and in English. If you set up an account with Isaac Mao’s service, which is called BlogBus, and you post things using certain words that have been keyed into a program as triggering “objectable content,” then you won’t be able to post it and/or your blog will be blocked.” (Burstein and Kline 328) I found this to be extremely intriguing so I went to his site to research it and to view the responses made by bloggers. When I went to his site, it was very unlike how I imagined it to be. It appears to be very traditional and mundane. There weren’t a lot of colors and there were very few pictures, not too appealing at that. Yet some readers may challenge my view that it is not always the amount of color of appeal of the blog that interests and grabs someone’s attention. It is the words or text that captures the person’s attention. The background is white but the things that he talks about in his posts are what makes his words almost jump off of the page. Many of his posts are about basic and complex computer problems as well as the Chinese environment and culture the impact of Chinese events. After all, many believe that it is not the physical description that is what matters most. Indeed my own argument that the color of text of the bog is not as important as the actual words and issues expressed in the bog seems to ignore how adding colors and vibrancy could add and inspire more people to view his blog and respond to it. However, apparently there has been a great deal of controversy over what people are able to express and write on his blog. For example, Mackinnon states that, “There have been quite a lot of Chinese people who have gone to jail for things the have put on websites and that a lot of interesting speech has taken place in the Chinese blogoshpere and very lively stories about daily life.” (Burstein and Kline 328) After readings Mankinnon’s description of the blog and then going to the site, I found that there were a lot of similarities and that she was very accurate with her details.