Is blogging unscholarly? Before I could attempt to summarize the impetus of that question, a movement by the International Studies Assocation to restrict its members from operating outside blogs (as reported by Inside Higher Ed), and then offer an answer, I actually had to look up the definition of blog, which, according to Merrimam-Webster dictionary, is "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also : the contents of such a site." Another source's definition added the word "opinions" somewhere in the list of "reflections, comments," etc.
To me, opinions and journal are the two most apt words. Most of the so called blogs I've encountered are people recording a trip, event, or simply their lives in a very objective way (usually to the point of boredom from the reader's perspective) or taking a very subjective viewpoint of things (the worst examples tending towards the radical). Yet, actually defining a blog is usually about feel, down to the more rounded, less Times Romanian font and darker background. Yes, this feels like a blog. No, this one doesn't. That feel is directly related to its sense of professionalism, the same characteristic Harvey Starr, a University of South Carolina professor and the ISA's president, accused blogs of lacking. Maybe, then, we should work to more specifically define blogs and differentiate them according to quality and professionalism.
At this point, the term blog is more of a buzz word (like "internships") than a definable space. It's a cliche that's lost any specific meaning. Consider the daily letters from professors and/or college administrators published on Inside Higher Ed. They are blog-like in their subjective viewpoint, but are also more polished and evidence-based than your typical post. They are not blogs, but if they were uploaded to the authors' personal websites, they probably would be.
Thus, it's time to re-categorize blogs, and then organizations like the ISA wouldn't be forced into their proposed ban. Call the good ones "scholarly bogs," like the Monkey Cage, a political science "blog" that eventually merged into the online pages of the Washington Post, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Or, don't label your personal website a blog at all. When my friends ask me about my blog (which follows my favorite baseball player, Brett Gardner), I tell them it's not a blog; it's a fan site. How could one robot-like word define so many types of writing!
The ISA's proposal, as reported by Inside Higher Ed.
"No editor of any ISA journal or member of any editorial team of an ISA journal can create or actively manage a blog unless it is an official blog of the editor's journal or the editorial team's journal. This policy requires that all editors and members of editorial teams to apply this aspect of the Code of Conduct to their ISA journal commitments. All editorial members, both the Editor in Chief(s) and the board of editors/editorial teams, should maintain a complete separation of their journal responsibilities and their blog associations."
