Buy Or Don’t Buy

In the music industry, when you take someone else’s song and make it your own, it’s called a remix.  In the movie industry, when you take an old film and create a new version of it, it’s called a remake.  In the literary world, when you use someone else’s words in your own publication, it’s called plagiarism.  However, on the internet, it’s called reblogging!

There’s an interesting economy in cyberspace, where the common currency is measured in page views.  So usually any time a user is exposed to your content, regardless of the source, it’s considered a favorable thing.  However, if we follow this same economy analogy whereby currency = page views, then credit = links back to the original source.  Where reblogging varies from the more traditional plagiarism is the ability to give credit where credit is due.

In its more base form, reblogging is a great way to take what someone else has written, slap on a paragraph of ‘analysis’ about whether you agree or disagree with it, throw in a link back to the source, and call it your own.  However, reblogging can also be a great tool for social analysis, pointing out inconsistencies in reporting, or journalistic bias.  A web savvy group of friends can reblog each others’ entries about an event or experience they all shared, each giving his or her own perspective.  Writers can garner a greater exposure of their work when other web sites reblog their content.  In fact, we encourage it!  Feel free to reblog this entry about reblogging.  (But don’t forget to credit me.)  Not only will it be meta, but it will create more cyberspace currency for everyone.  And that’s a buy in my book.