Blogging Re-defined!

BLOGGING- BREAKING BARRIERS OF MAINSTREAM JOURNALISM! 

A truncation of the word weblog, BLOGS, are discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first). Until 2009 blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject. More recently "multi-author blogs" (MABs) have developed, with posts written by large numbers of authors and professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other micro blogging systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into societal news streams.  Blogs are a medium of expression. Internet has however, blurred the lines between genre and medium. Within blogs various genres of blogs like diary-style, political, or filter blog can be identified. Of course many blogs do cross genres. The emergence and growth of blogs in the late 1990s coincided with the advent of web publishing tools that facilitated the posting of content by non-technical users. (Previously, a knowledge of such technologies as HTML and FTP had been required to publish content on the Web.) A majority are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other and it is this interactivity that distinguishes it from static websites. Bloggers do not only produce content to post on their blogs, but also build social relations with their readers and other bloggers. Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries; others function more as online brand advertising of a particular individual or company. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important contribution to the popularity of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blogs), photographs (photoblogs), videos (video blogs or "vlogs"), music (MP3 blogs), and audio (podcasts). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts. In education, blogs can be used as instructional resources. These blogs are referred to as edublogs.
People are said to use blogs for various reasons;
Ego gratification. Some people need to be the center of attention. It makes them feel good about themselves to tell the world what important things they've been doing and what profound thoughts they've been having.
Anti-depersonalization. When people begin to think that they are nothing more than a cog in the wheel of society, they look for any way to differentiate themselves. The Web log proves they are different.
Elimination of frustration. Day-to-day life, especially in the city, is wrought with frustration, and the Web log gives people the ability to complain to the world. You get to read a lot of complaining in these logs.
Societal need to share. As a cynic who gets paid to write, I have a hard time with this explanation. But it seems some people genuinely like to "share," and this is one way.
Wanna-be writers. A lot of people want to be published writers. Blogs make it happen without the hassle of getting someone else to do it or having to write well—although there is good writing to be found. Some is shockingly good. Most of it is miserable
Blogging has evolved from crude and blunt internet ramblings, technical or inspired dialogues to a diverse and creative web phenomenon capable of calling the world's media to scrutiny.
The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997 and it was in 1999 that Pitas, the world’s 1^st micro blogging platform came into being followed by blogger in the same year. On 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence on 20 February 2014, there were around 172 million Tumblr and 75.8 million Word Press blogs in existence worldwide. However, there is a problem of inactive blogs. Many people create blogs for an experience but abandon it after some posts. 

Blogging has changed the way people consume, interpret and see news and information. Today anyone can post their views and opinions they want free of cost. Blogging has redefined freedom of expression! By the end of the century bloggers can actually own a press, a modern and lightweight version of one. This new freedom to publish has caused journalists to re evaluate the role of mainstream journalism. If we want more information about a news we can always search the net and read up various blogs for a detailed analysis of the news which traditional media fails to provide. Journalist question, “is blogging a threat to journalism?”The answer usually no. But blogging does intersect with journalism in broadly 3 ways. First, blogs can give a first hand reports from ongoing events. Sometimes bloggers stumble upon some events that turn out to be important and they are chance witnesses. Second, some bloggers tell stories that have already been told by traditional mediums however those have failed to provide the reader with a critical analysis of the event. These bloggers may pool resources and track down information much alike professionals. Third, many bloggers follow mainstream media and other blogs and filter stories according to their interest or they carefully monitor every news about a particular person or issue. These have been called “gate watchers” by Axel Bruns. This is analogous to gate keeping in traditional media. Today blogging is very much a part of the media ecology. And just like journalism is expected to be objective and reliable, so is blogging. Blogs are subjective and independent and come with NO guarantee of truth hence, credibility of a blog is a big stone unturned. Personal authenticity can be faked, sources can be misquoted without much action being taken and information can be misleading. However they can be back lashed when exposed within the blogosphere (virtual interactive community of bloggers on the web) Also authenticity doesn’t necessarily need complete self exposure. If a blogger becomes popular enough, readers will try to find out the blogger’s real id. When the Iraqi blogger Salam Pax became read by millions during US invasion of Iraq, There were debates about his identity. If he was an Iraqi living in Baghdad or fake? Was his blog propaganda from Saddam Hussain to muster pity for Iraqis or was it US propaganda. However, these debates could never get a clear distinction. At some level the real-ness of the blog doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter if the videos of crying children and dying people were really posted by teenagers in Beirut after Israel bombed their city. All these issues had already been reported traditionally however these blogs are emotional and subjective reports on events that we already know about. Salam Pax wrote about everything that we could have imagined but we still wanted to read or see them from people actually experiencing these events. The line between blogging and mainstream journalism are blurring with the rise of Citizen/Participatory Journalism where citizens can now collect, process, analyze, critique and report through blogs. Blogging during the gulf war led to an entire new branch of blogging called war blogging devoted wholly to covering news events about an ongoing war. With people taking up blogging to critique the US media during the 2^nd gulf war war blogs become a rampant phenomenon. 

The US media houses were accused of doing biased reportage during the gulf war and showing just the American view of the war. That’s when people took up blogging to narrate the other side of the war which kind of balanced the kind of content related to the war that was available for the readers to consume and form opinions on. Blogs also became a big thing post the 9/11 attack on the twin towers where strikingly not just people but even Media houses took up blogging to disseminate news. People used it to narrate their personal experiences and media and news channels actually started their own blogs to report since transmission lines had been dismantled. Realizing the importance of blogs with the kind of traffic it generated on the web, news channels started taking feeds, bytes and small pieces of sourced data from these blogs to show on their channels. This is a big way in which blog supported main stream journalism in a BIG way! Blogging can sometimes have unforeseen consequences in politically sensitive areas. Blogs are much harder to control than broadcast or even print media. As a result, totalitarian and authoritarian regimes often seek to suppress blogs and/or to punish those who maintain them. The significance of blogging is bound to increase with more and more people wanting to express and not just be passive consumers of constructed information. Also the ever growing accessibility of the internet is giving people a chance to do so. Blogging is definitely a big thing today and will continue to grow in the coming years.