[Process Post 4] Who are you?

You. You are my public. The one who is reading this. Whether you are part of the general population or part of a community within the space I am writing in, you belong to different publics. According to Warner (2002) about Publics and Counterpublics, the general population is the public. To my audience, my classmates, my friends and to those interested in the topics I indulge in, you are my public (a public).

Decisions

A large part of this site is informed by the design of who my audience is (the readers/visitors of this site). In my earlier process post, I had discussed a few inspirations that guided my design. Partly, these inspirations themselves were similar to what my content would be for. They would be for people who wants to read, have something to take away from my experiences and go onwards in their world.

This means my choices in content (typically) cannot be lengthy, nor is it an academic paper with complex writing skills. Maintaining proper etiquette and expectations from PUB 101 requirements and my own is a given. This includes making sure sentences generally make sense, spelling is checked, and sources are cited when necessary. Other considerations including accessibility needs on my site (alt texts with photos) and so forth.

Eventually, finding ways to spice up my content with visuals, videos, snarky jokes and revelations is part of the recipe I have in mind for my audience to enjoy. As the antithesis of academic writing, this is where my freeform writing can exist to be my voice for what I decide to tell my ‘slice’ of the story.

Audience

I would have no surprises if my readers (you) were from places I would not expect. This is the internet, and the way tags are set up and the SEO’s, my site could appear across the world. That said, I have a strong inkling that my audience/public may be niche to Metro Vancouver, SFU Community, my classmates in PUB 101 and interested friends stumbling into this digital cyberinfrastructure. Eventually, as Boyd aptly describes the “tensions between the technologies that help create networked publics and the publics that are created through networked technologies reveals” how public is being “remade every day in people’s lives.” As my friends discover my website link placed on my social media, this bridges the networks that forms new connections.

Now the question of what counterpublics, which is a subcategory of publics, could offspring from my public remains. The counterpublic I potentially could anticipate based on Fattal’s text above is this. Perhaps my public is inspired (and I encourage you!) to explore in a different direction based on my site. The focus could be not about life, but ‘slices’ of your journey in a game that you play. This could be a counterpublic that is offers something new that I would not embody. However, I would say that if my public was large enough/matured (as a public) enough to develop counterpublics, that would be quite a milestone in itself.

References:

• Boyd, Danah. 2014 “Searching for a public of their own.” It’s Complicated. pp 213-227
• Fattal, Alexander. 2018. “Counterpublic” escholarship.org.
• Warner, Michael. 2002. “Publics and Counterpublics.” in Quarterly Journal of Speech. 88.4.