Cold Fusion vs. Mental Illness
When I was reading different blog posts about public issues, I got a very specific feel from each post. A good blog post (I think) can reach out to the audience and make them feel a certain way about a topic. They can present factual information with statistics and include cited info, or can take a more unorthodox approach and blog as if they are addressing the audience directly. A good example of different ways to present info can be seen in this blog about cold fusion vs. this post about mental illness and drugs.
The post about drugs and mental illness is a good example of a very factual post. They reference numerous outside sources, including the Departments of Healthy Policy Management and Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Colleen Barry, who recently co-authored a study on how the public views drug addiction versus mental illness. These references help enforce the topic that there is a negative public image that comes with mental illness and the need for drugs to help people with mental illnesses. This blog also contains social media connections, giving people the option to share on twitter, facebook, or google plus. This helps with spreading this blog post specifically so that the audience can grow in size.
A post that portrays another method of delivery can be seen here . The topic is about recent advances in cold fusion about a renewable energy source. However, the author seems very skeptical about implementing this into society because of it’s harmful radioactive effects. The title “Go Away, Cold Fusion” already establishes his tentativeness towards the topic before you even begin reading. He says ” . . .if there really is all this energy available, aren’t they going to be flying out of the collision with tremendous power, producing what we civilians call deadly radiation?” He presents his idea effectively, but uses a bit of humor by down-playing the harmful side of radiation. He does cite a few sources, but doesn’t use nearly as many as the other blog post mentioned above.
Both sources are from the same website , but use different tactics to supply info. This goes to show that there are different ways for blog posts to be successful.
Views All Time
Views Today
The first post you read and described was very factual and scientific, as you said. Personally I found it more difficult to read and understand, and more difficult to remain interested throughout the piece. The information the author provided would have been super if I was doing a research project or was particularly interested in the topic for whatever reason, but for this instance of casual reading the lack of pictures and large amount of straightforward, factual text wasn’t entirely fun to read.
The second post was more compelling for me personally, despite how I had no idea what ‘cold fusion’ was prior to reading. I appreciated having the text divided by a picture, it helped to keep the information entertaining and matched the more conversational, casual tone used in this second post.
I liked how you chose two very different posts from one website. It shows how one site can attract two different audiences and create a space for various ideas.