As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m in a Women’s Magazines and Female Journalists class at CMC. Today KF joined our class and gave a really good, informative talk on blogs as a literary form and the creation of character through personal blogs (to name a few of her main points). At the end, in response to a student's question, KF said (and I hope, KF, that you don't mind if I share this) that she guesses that 25% of her personal blog is written for herself, with no thought of her audience. Of course, that means that about 75% of the time, she writes with her audience in mind. Perhaps this number seems high to some, but I think it's surprising low. After all, at the end of class, we talked about how personal blogs can be compared to reality TV shows: at times, somewhat scripted and perhaps representative of a false identity (though the viewer may never know if the identity is real or not). Using that same comparison, I thought that a blogger must ALWAYS be aware that she is writing for an audience. I mean, the people on MTV's Real World are certainly aware that a camera is in front of them and act accordingly, right? Similarly, I thought that personal bloggers must always be aware of a potential audience. But then I realized how my blog writing has changed over the semester; at first, I was incredibly uncomfortable writing something that would be posted to my professor, my entire class, and to anyone else who happened to stumble upon our site. However, now I’m much more at ease writing, and I don't feel as embarrassed raising points on the blog, even if they are somewhat personal.