Saturday, October 9, 2010

The blogging phenomenon

 

According to blogpulse.com, there are now a total of 147,850,563 identified web logs (aka blogs): with 50 new ones created daily. An average 1 million blog posts are indexed daily.


Evidently, there are more people sharing their thoughts online since blogs were introduced in 1998. Blogs are not simply a social phenomenon but have become a prerequisite – transforming politics, business and society. Media professionals, modern journalists and even governments recognize the increasing power of blogs and web citizens are absorbing the information flow almost as soon as news breaks in this participatory journalism medium.
‘Under specific circumstances – when key weblogs focus on a new or neglected issue – blogs can socially construct an agenda or interpretive frame that acts as a focal point for mainstream media, shaping and constraining the larger political debate’ (Dresner & Farrell, 2004).

In this period of accelerating digital change, interactive blogs have become de rigueur communication and have given rise to citizen journalism, quite a different ballgame from mainstream media which are regulated by government and corporate directives.


That said, there is no central organization of the many types of blogs in the blogosphere. Thus online communities with similar viewpoints differ from early day civilizations, for one could always leave the community. In this age of many-to-many communication, it is entirely up to the individual to identify and analyze viewpoints and decide on a match.

Reference
Blogpulse Stats 8 October 2010, viewed 9 October 2010, <http://www.blogpulse.com>
Drezner, D W & Farrell, H 2004 The power and politics of blogs, 2004 American Political Science Association.
Image courtesy of: http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/thinkbloginversion_1.jpg

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