a.Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits of blogging to the community
The atmosphere of blogosphere is currently a major trend in the World Wide Web. From Perez Hilton's worldwide sensation to local bloggers like Xiaxue and Kenny Sia, from lifestyle editors like Marlina Ordova, to controversial political bloggers like Raja Petra Kamaruddin, blogs have impact the usage of Internet widely. Currently, Blogpulse (2010), with the help of Nielsen Research, had stated that there are 126,861,574 identified blogs in the Internet and it is still continuing to increase time by time.
As a whole, the world of blogs has revolutionized the Internet world and thus, created a popular trend among Internet users. Generally, as you can see from the graph below (Blogpulse Live, 2010), the top blogs are diaries, movies and sports. However,due to localization and culture, trends are different according in various countries.
source: Blogpulse Live
For example, based on the happenings and culture in a particular place, blogging trends will be different in various places. For example, in Malaysia, the online diary trend seems to be popular and it outnumbered the numbers of political blogs when compared to the United States.
As "diary" blogs become popular in blogosphere, they do serve a significant role in their own community. These are a few main roles:
1. Making local voices be heard. (Loevenstein, 2008)
- The mainstream media may cover it all, but due to commercial space, they don't. When bloggers entered the Internet, they tend to report about the happenings around them, thus they become a new group of "watchdogs" of society alongside journalists. Indirectly, some of them become citizen journalists.
2. Democracy
- Blogs are online symbols of freedom of speech, where everybody has the rights to speak. However, in some countries such as China, Loevenstein (2008) stated that their rights are challenged by the local authorities.
These are the roles of blogs for the community. Blogs also serves the business world as a platform of advertising and publicity, as well as improving customers' relations (for e.g. AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines use blogs to boost ticket sales in the airline competition).
References:
Blogpulse, 2010, Percentage of Blog by Topic, viewed April 18, 2010, <http://www.blogpulse.com/bplive_full.html>
Loevenstein, A, 2010, Beating The Western Drum, viewed April 18, 2010 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/15/blog.politics/print>
As a whole, the world of blogs has revolutionized the Internet world and thus, created a popular trend among Internet users. Generally, as you can see from the graph below (Blogpulse Live, 2010), the top blogs are diaries, movies and sports. However,due to localization and culture, trends are different according in various countries.
For example, based on the happenings and culture in a particular place, blogging trends will be different in various places. For example, in Malaysia, the online diary trend seems to be popular and it outnumbered the numbers of political blogs when compared to the United States.
As "diary" blogs become popular in blogosphere, they do serve a significant role in their own community. These are a few main roles:
1. Making local voices be heard. (Loevenstein, 2008)
- The mainstream media may cover it all, but due to commercial space, they don't. When bloggers entered the Internet, they tend to report about the happenings around them, thus they become a new group of "watchdogs" of society alongside journalists. Indirectly, some of them become citizen journalists.
Source: Jessicat.com - An example on how a blogger covers an event.
- Blogs are online symbols of freedom of speech, where everybody has the rights to speak. However, in some countries such as China, Loevenstein (2008) stated that their rights are challenged by the local authorities.
These are the roles of blogs for the community. Blogs also serves the business world as a platform of advertising and publicity, as well as improving customers' relations (for e.g. AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines use blogs to boost ticket sales in the airline competition).
References:
Blogpulse, 2010, Percentage of Blog by Topic, viewed April 18, 2010, <http://www.blogpulse.com/bplive_full.html>
Loevenstein, A, 2010, Beating The Western Drum, viewed April 18, 2010 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/15/blog.politics/print>
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