Who Exactly is Ross Mathews, and how has blogging escalated him to virtual and literal stardom?
During Ross' senior year in college he earned a position as an intern with The Tonight Show - the #1 rated late-night talk show in the nation. His internship was spent doing the typical (menial) duties that most interns face, until the last day of his internship when he was informed by the head writer, that they believed Ross had what it took to be on television. He was told to leave immediately with George Clooney, whom he was to accompany to the premiere of "Ocean's Eleven." His assignment was to interview various celebrities as they made their way down the red carpet.
The premiere was an enormous success, and Ross was asked to cover many other highly publicized events, including the Olympics. During the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Ross started writing an extremely popular blog for The Tonight Show website. Ross was subsequently hired to blog full-time, has traveled the world as a Tonight Show correspondent, and is now described as "a staple of late-night television and a favorite of the public and celebrities alike."
Blood concedes, "By writing a few lines each day, weblog editors redefine media as a public, participatory endeavor" (130). RossBlog allows its readers to gain access to events that are typically off-limits to the public. Readers are able to get a glimpse into an ethereal world, feeling as if they are celebrities, even for a brief moment. Ross' silly, light-hearted commentary provides for, what Blood describes as "an unexpectedly intimate view of what it is to be a particular individual in a particular place at a particular time" (131). While the majority of us "common folk" will never get to experience what it feels like to be jet-setting with George Clooney, we can always live vicariously through RossBlog.
Although RossBlog is seemingly just a light-hearted account of the "marvelous and mundane details" of day-to-day life, Ross also covers current events of great importance. He participates in "the dissemination and interpretation of the news that is fed to us every day" (Blood 130), adding a unique spin to the stories.
For example, he covered the Writer's Guild of America in a somewhat personal manner. Ross described seeing many of his friends on strike and wrote, "After telling them all how much I support them, I took a picture with my blackberry and wanted to share it with you in order to put a real face on a story many of you are reading about in the paper or watching on the nightly news" (11/5/07).
RossBlog allows its readers to experience events that they would probably never have access to, outside the virtual world. Ross Mathews is able to insert his own views on current events and influences his fans to follow his example and "find [their] own opinions and ideas worthy of serious consideration" (Blood 132).
If the blogging world could escalate this college senior communications major to star-status, what could it do for us?!
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