I blog, therefore I am

By Charlotte van Nus on 23 September 2011

Immersion in the world of cross-media. As a new member of the Cross-Media Lab I felt that I could relate to the issues the students of the Media Battle dealt with. Not literally in terms of creating a media strategy, but in terms of profiling and carrying out a message. Since you have to introduce yourself in an organization you have to carry out a message, so people are aware of your presence. You have to focus on characteristics and distinctions that you want to carry out towards the people that receive these messages. In sum you have to profile yourself, just like the students of the Media Battle had to. Therefore you are looking for aspects you can identify yourself with. The students of the Media Battle made an effort to find the best suitable cross-media strategy the concerned organization and their audience could identify with. In the end the students who won had created concepts that were the most appropriate and best suitable for their specific issue, and could be internalized the best with by the organization. The organization identified with the created concept and the jury identified with the idea of putting this concept into practice. Thus, it is clear that identification with cross-media concepts plays an important role for all those who are involved.

However, profiling a concept provides more than mere identification. On a more detailed level one can even say that the type of medium is important for ones identity. In the past years, the way people use the media has become more and more important at a micro level. Nowadays people derive satisfaction from interfering with the media and joining (digital) social groups and networks. By using a certain medium (blog) or joining social networks (facebook) we construct our identity and leave our personal mark on the world. We present ourselves with a personal digital profile. This digital profile is the modern way of describing our identity. However, the contents of these profiles have historical roots. One can use a profile to present oneself with opinions on Twitter. Inspired by Descartes, Stine Jensen and Rob Wijnberg label this what I think is who I am. Alternatively, one can present oneself with ones professional experience on LinkedIn: I work, therefore I am. With this personal digital identity we distinguish our self from others. Thereby it also serves as a social identity. The social psychologist Tajfel said that a social identity is determined by its contrast with others, because we desire to receive confirmation of our self-image. By change, concepts are formed in people’s minds while reflecting upon their environment. Thus, maybe we can say that cross-media concepts are a form of social identification since you have to distinguish your concept from existing competitive concepts?

People use the media to define their selves. Who we are is not a current issue, but a question we are concerned with for centuries. We can still see traces of the philosophical theories of great thinkers as Descartes, Locke and Kant in our current (digital) identities. Blogging is part of the identity development in the cross media landscape because it can be used to profile the self and form one’s identity. In my context, as a new member of cross-media lab, I can use this mean to profile myself. Questions like ‘What is my perception? What is reality?’ will guide my work and will shape my identity as junior researcher. Throughout my blogs I will use these questions to profile my ideas. Thus, in my case we can say: I blog, therefore I am!

tagged with: digital profile, identity, identification

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