...or weblogs, have come a long way since first coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 on his website Robot Wisdom (Blood 2000). They are usually written by an individual and made accessible online.
This term is now used to describe “frequently updated observations, news, headlines, commentary, recommended links or diary entries, generally chronologically organized” (Werbach 2001). Blogs are so popular that they are reportedly mushrooming with a new blog every second (Ramos & Piper 2006)!
This 'mushroom' trend...
...has evolved from publishing personal thoughts (lyk, OMG!1!! 2daY Wuz s000ooo aWeSOme!) to tackling serious matters like racial discrimination . Since 2002, there have been 133 million blogs recorded (Technorati 2008).
People know blogs are powerful and important. Professional blogs attract roughly 44,000 unique visitors monthly (Technorati, 2008).
The great thing about blogs are its simplicity. It is easy to set up and you can publish your post as soon as you are happy with it.
According to Reporters without Borders, blogs are some countries' only source for independent news as the mainstream media is too tightly controlled (Ramos & Piper 2006).
A growing movement in the blogging community is the emergence of blog shops, where people sell various items through them. Besides that, online advertising on blogs where the blog owner gets paid for allowing advertisements is increasingly popular.
Wait... there are how many types of blog?!
Blogs can be academic and non-academic. It can discuss various subjects like (Wikipedia 2008):
Wikipedia (2008) lists three common blog types:
- personal blog
- corporate blog
- question blog
Wikipedia (2008) also enlists blogs according to its media type:
Evidently, there are numerous ways to categorise blog types. In The Media Report (2008), Margaret Simons labelled blog types according to the matter and method it is discussed. For instance, exhibition blogs are where craftspeople, artists and writers publish their works of art.
Blogging communities are inevitably formed through the use of comment boxes, tagboards, links and many others. The feedback received enables those in the community to expand their fascination of their interest.
White (2006) names three main community patterns.
- One Blog Centric Community – a community is formed around one blog, even inviting others to commentate on the blog.
- Topic Centric Community – a number of blogs discuss similar topics and are linked and often referred to by each other.
- Boundaried Communities – host sites that later enables its users to discuss in forums and blog about various things.
PerezHilton.com, a celebrity gossip blog, has a Topic Centric Blog Community. The blog editor receives feedback from emails, comments and various responses to the activities he has on his blog. The blog also contains links to other similar blogs and these blogs maintain and promote his blog too.
References:
Blood, R 2000, ‘Weblogs: a history and perspective’ in Rebecca’s Pocket, viewed 4 November 2008, [http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html]
Ramos, M & Piper, PS 2006, ‘Letting the grass grow: grassroots information on blogs and wikis’, Reference Services Review, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 570-574.
The Media Report 2008, 'A taxonomy of blogs', audio recording, ABC Radio National, 25 September, viewed 4 November 2008, [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript]
Werbach, K 2001, ‘Mapping the Net: Revenge of the Physical World’ in Release 1.0, viewed 4 November 2008, [http://www.release1-0.com/release1/abstracts.php?Counter=4359811]
White, N 2006, ‘Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?’ in The Knowledge Tree, vol.11, viewed 4 November 2008, [http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community]
Wikipedia, 2008, 'Types' in Blog, viewed 4 November 2008, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs#Types]
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