Samysj’s Weblog

Blogging on.

January 7, 2008 at 11:25 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Umming and ahhing about what I could include in my very own blog, it suddenly struck me, Blogging! Why had I never noticed how big blogging had become? Specifically interesting is the fact that celebrity blogging has more recently become popular through online sites such as Perezhilton.com.

 

Perez writes his very own blog in which he likes to talk about the celebrities he has encountered in the past day, whether he has found a hideous picture of them leaving the gym, or has come across some juicy information he wishes to share with the world – whether it be true or not – or if he simply wants to share a video or talk about something in the press. It is very trashy and very addictive! The blog is written entirely about celebrities and sometimes he includes snippets of blogs written by celebs themselves, such as Lily Allen who moaned about her 2007 tour of the US saying she felt fat and frumpy amongst all the beautiful American women and rmore ecently the Spice Girls who talked about their current comeback tour.

 http://perezhilton.com/?p=4058  

But this celeb craze is not something which will be copied by millions of fans, such as the miniature dog going everywhere you do, crazy dieting, the posh pob haircut…I could go on, this is actually one trend that came after us mere mortal, non-celebs started it! It seems to be a way for celebrities to keep a diary, whilst also informing their fans of what they’re getting upto, kind of a way to keep themselves down to earth while still remaining famous. 

So why do we like to blog?

 Blogging is the ideal way for an audience member to put their own thoughts across; responses, values, beliefs or even just general ranting. Also, it means that the individual has the potential to go from an audience member to having an audience of their very own, and who wouldn’t want that?! 

“A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.”

Blogs can also be used as political tools. Although the personal blog – or online diary – is the most common type of blog, it usually receives little media attention. The greatest impact on mainstream media comes not from personal journals but from political blogs.  In 2004, political blogs dominated the top of blog rankings such as those published at Technorati.com, Daypop.com and Truthlaidbear.com.  

So what motivates a political blogger? 

If the Clinton-Lewinsky outrage of the late 1990s is the event that marked the birth of online journalism, then the terrorist attacks of September 11^th 2001 did the same for blogging. Although they first appeared in the late 1990’s, it was after the tragedy of 9/11 that the trend of blogging began to spread rapidly. Many of these blogs focused around the events of this day and consequently President Bush’s war on terrorism, one example is the conservative blog Vodkapundit.com which began 4 months after 9/11 with a post titled “Why Aren’t We Bombing Iraq Back to the Stone Age Already?” On the liberal side, Dailykos.com started 8 months after 9/11 and included frequent posts regarding the war on terrorism and the building up to the Iraq invasion. The war proved an advantage to bloggers as they provided round-the-cock commentary on its execution. These so-called war blogs typically evolved to include discussion of politics and current events, including the 2002/2004 US elections.  

Blogs also proved to be an invaluable tool for communication and fundraising after the tsunami, sites like tsunamihelp.blogspot.com were able to mobilize relief efforts and coordinate volunteers. Much like my idea for charity fundraising in my blog about the boys from Ibizadiary.com!  

Blogging can also be related to citizen journalism, which has become an innovative way in which the public can get involved in bringing the news to the world quickly, and even more effectively in some cases due to the closeness of which they might be involved with the news. The July 2005 bombings in London proved to be another major source of discussion for bloggers, using their mobile phones, eyewitnesses took pictures of chaotic scenes that were then posted on blogs within minutes (and on a few cutting-edge news sites such as those run by the BBC.)  

If news events such as these encouraged the growth of the blogosphere, the question is ‘Why?’ Readers could always get the essential information from mainstream news sites, but the blogs provide something different. The best of them offer a service to readers by monitoring the web for the latest unique facets of the stories. Instead of visiting dozens of news sites, a good topical blogger can do that for the reader. 

“Blogs give readers the impression that they are getting unmediated raw information”. 

They provide not only the news of the event but also instantaneous written commentary on it, allowing for feedback from readers in the form of comment functions available on many blogs, even readers who do not leave an opinion (probably the vast majority) get the sense of being part of an event by reading the live discourse of others.  

The influence of amateur news and information providers stems from several factors: firstly they have outsider status. Like TV news in the 1950’s they are seen as conduits to raw information, somehow less corrupted by power than their predecessors. Secondly, some have attained a large audience. Regardless of whether they should have an audience, they do, and with it comes power. Lastly, they have the ‘power of collective’. Even if many individual blogs have just a few hundred regular readers, collectively the blogosphere can generate a louder ‘buzz’.  

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D8Q-Z5HEpA&feature=related

Do blogs pose a threat to mainstream media? 

Blogs represent a threat to mainstream media in a number of ways, as the rapid expansion of the cable universe inevitably led to a slow decline of audience share for the old broadcast networks, so too can we expect a decline in use of preweb media. Unlike cable television, for which content production is expensive and channels number in the hundreds, blog content is cheap to produce, is free to the consumer and numbers its channels in the millions.