Blogging phenomenon & its benefits towards community

Jorn Barger described ‘weblog’ as personal websites that present ‘frequently updated news, headlines, recommended links, diary entries’ and so on. ‘Weblog’ is called ‘weblog’ is because it is organized chronologically and designed for short, frequent updates. In other words, weblogs represent online intersection of people and time (Branum, 2001).

The blogging phenomenon is now becoming a major issue amongst the society that the size of blogosphere is seemingly increasing. As you can see from the pie chart below, according to Technorati (2010), the state of blogosphere in 2010 is seemingly huge that blogging has become a worldwide phenomenon and almost everyone blogs. According to the chart, United States of America has the largest size of bloggers.

Based on the results of a survey done by Press Microsoft Malaysia on the blogosphere in Malaysia, 81% of Malaysians blog for their friends and family (Press Microsoft Malaysia 2006) and primarily of the bloggers are women.

There are lots preferable blogs that are normally visited by the people in Europe, Asia and Malaysia such as personal blogs, political blogs, corporate blogs and so on.

With the existence of blogs today, public switched from mainstream media to online blogs for updated news. As an example, political blogs in Malaysia provide insights of the politics in Malaysia and give alternative news to the citizens about recent happenings in the country and encourages the people to actively participate in political discussions. On the other hand, in Iran, blogging about politics is quite prevalent but at the same time it has huge risk. In April 2003, Iran has the first government to imprison a blogger – Sina Motallebi who owned a popular weblog RoozNegar.com as it is said to have gone against the regime of Iran (Alper & Barcella, 2006).

In conclusion, undeniably blogging has become a huge part in humans’ life especially teenagers and young adults as a medium to voice out their own concerns and it is growing rapidly as it is seen to be the new form of media to express their feelings.

(Example of Political Blog)

Source : Lim Guan Eng 2011

(Example of Personal Blog)

Source : Xiaxue 2011

Reference :

• Alper, A & Barcella, L 2006, Iran, blogging against regime, AlterNet, viewed 21st August 2011, <http://www.alternet.org/story/30702/>.
  
  


• Branum, J.M 2001, The blogging phenomenon: an overview and theoretical consideration, JMBZINE.com, viewed 21st August 2011, <http://www.ajy.net/jmb/blogphenomenon.htm>.
  
  


• State of the blogosphere 2010 introduction 2010, Technorati, viewed 21st August 2011, <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/>.
  
  


• Women rule in Malaysian blogosphere 2006, Press Microsoft Malaysia, viewed 21st August 2011, <http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2006/linkpage4337.mspx>.