This exegesis will highlight and justify the choices made during the creation of the central and contributing nodes. The exegesis will also highlight various theories and notion which aided in the decision making and implementation of certain aspects of the online presence.
Ros Vs. Food combines my personal real life identity, Roslee Yussof and my love for food. The overall premise of the blog is my online identity as Roslee, “the food guy” who write, rants, review restaurants and discuss food. The central node takes the form and format of a blog, using blogger as my blog service. The main reason as to why I chose the blog format over a website format is due to the connotation in which blogs hold. The connotation of blogs though used in a similar manner as website, has a more relaxed, subjective and opinionated which allows a degree to freedom. This degree of freedom and subjective-ness is in direct contrast to the websites. This hobbyist and freedom is reflected in the 2010 Blogosphere survey done by Technorati. The survey states that, “Hobbyists remain the backbone of the blogosphere, representing 64% of respondents” (Sobel, 2010) Thus, we can see that blogs still carry the connotation of subjective-ness and freedom even in today’s Internet culture.
Most information posted on websites from text, video and picture instils the connotation of professionalism, being highly factual rather than subjective. This image of professionalism and factual-ness is one connotation which will hurt the main premise of the web presence. This is due to the “food” itself being a very subjective topic, what is considered good food for some is not for others and I myself am not an expert on Asian or Western Food. Hence due to the opinion based subject for the web presence and my un-academic knowledge about food cuisine it allows me to exercise a margin of errors.
The blog template of the central node I have chosen a photoblog or magazine blog appearance. The main focus and eye catcher is the image slider which automatically scrolls through featured post. The first featured post on the image slider is my “About Me” page which also has another link on the top navigation bar. Though this may seem redundant however, using the image sliders to highlight what is essentially a “double” post allows people to navigation easily and bring certain information to their attention. Thus, the image slider is used to direct the flow of traffic and aid with the aesthetic appeal. Below the image slider is a summarised blog post which has a “read more” option. The “read more” option allows the blog to seem more compact and tight rather than have an actual blog post below, this option was purely for aesthetic reasons rather than functional. Thus, the blog is my central node where the bulk of "Ros Vs. Food" information is displayed and link to my other three contributing nodes.
The three contributing nodes are Youtube, Facebook and Twitter which all have a specific function in building and extending the reach of Ros Vs. Food. One of the contributing node is Youtube, this particular node is used for the purposes for the Ros Vs. Food’s Podcast and other related food video such as cooking video and food rants. As the blog highlights there are two links to the Ros Vs. Food’s Youtube channel, first is by the “Watch Ros Vs. Food” button which transport the user directly to the Youtube channel. The second link is an actual Ros Vs. Food video or podcast which is featured on the blog. The implementation of the featured video on the blog allows a direct connection rather than having to visit the Youtube Channel. This particular node is an extension of Ros Vs. Food in manner of format and form. The Youtube node is a video and audio representation of Ros Vs. Food instead of texts and pictures which the blog uses. Thus, the Youtube node allows Ros Vs. Food to be presented into another format and as a result reach the identity.
The second node is Facebook, this particular node is the social aspect of the online presence. Facebook acts as a communication tool for people to reach Ros Vs. Food, it allows followers to post suggestion, ask questions and share photos. The Facebook node is a “Like” page rather than a personal page. This is due to Facebook and other social networking sites which emphasizes using your real life identity rather than a persona. Besides Facebook being used as a communication tools, it also allows the web presence to reach a wider range of people. This notion is highlighted in Boyd and Ellison’s Social networking article titled “Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship” where it states SNS allows the articulation of “a list of other users with whom they share a connection” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007) As a result from these connections make Ros Vs. Food is more interactive and take part in the participatory culture of Web 2.0.
The last contributing node is Twitter, this particular node is the informational aspect of the web presence. Twitter is a mircoblog and at a word length of only 140 characters is node may seem limited. However, this particular node purpose is to share short information such as where to find cheap food, give opinion and act as a check in to allow the users to know where Ros Vs. Food is physically.
In conclusion each of the contributing nodes has a specific function and works in tangent with the web presence created. The central node takes the form of a photoblog or online magazine where everything is compacted and tight. The blog has numerous hyperlink connections from “double post”, links from images, image sliders and buttons found throughout the blog. These links allow users to navigate through blog and essentially understand the web presence of Ros Vs. Food much better.
Reference
Sobel, J. (2010). State of the Blogosphere 2010. Retrieved from http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/page-2/
Boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11 Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x/full
