Do some online research into blogs as a new media genre: their origins, development etc and share your findings in your entries.What forms of expression are they really good for?
The term ‘blog’ came from the word ‘weblog’, which was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 and there are now more than a hundred million active blogs. (Wortham, 2007,). They are entries which are dated and posted in reverse chronological order onto a webpage.
The nature of blogs varies depending on the individual who writes the blog, some are personal diaries whereas some are rants, commentary on news, business / marketing related, or based on a subject such as politics, or travel.
“A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger".” (validwebdesigns.com/glossary/).
One of the earliest bloggers was Justin Hall, who began his ‘online diary’ before the term was even coined. Blogs used to be parts of websites, which were just updated regularly by the person who ran them; however, due to technology advancements these regular posts could now be put up in reverse chronological order and these advancements made the whole concept available to a bigger audience as it removed a lot of the technological aspects. The idea of blogs and blogging grew from there and has evolved into the phenomenon of blogging as we know it today; “a highly networked mass of online knowledge and communication” (Mark Brady, 2005). There are now even blog awards such as ‘the Bloggies’ (http://2009.bloggies.com/) and the ‘BOB – Best of blogs’ (http://www.thebobs.com/)
Blogs are particularly useful for expressing opinions, sharing your daily life and thoughts with your audience, marketing and advertising, creating news stories and keeping colleagues up to date.
Wortham, J (2007), "After Ten Years of Blogs, the Future's Brighter Than Ever", http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/12/blog_anniversary
Brady, M (2005), "Blogging: Personal Participation in Public Knowledge Building on the Web", http://www.essex.ac.uk/chimera/content/pubs/wps/CWP-2005-02-blogging-in-the-Knowledge-Society-MB.pdf
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I agree with all the information about blogs but like i have commented to Emma what is your opinion, do you consider blogs new media ?
ReplyDeleten response to that question, i just looked abck at week one work - what is new media?...
ReplyDelete“A unifying term which actually refers to a wide range of changes in media production, distribution and use.”
New media is referred to by some as ‘digital media’ as it is thought to be a more specific term.
I supppose that in a way blogs aren't a form of new media, because there's not really an old media of blogs. Maybe they are like a persons diary or journal, but in this format is not really media.
However, some people refer to new media as 'digital media', and its in this way i think blogs are a form of new media. They could be seen as a digital version of a column in a magazine or magazine.
They're kind of a new media, but don't have an old media version; for example, the email is the new version of the letter.
The idea that blogging is quite like a digital version of a magazine column links to the fact of Meikel's 'new' journalists. Do you think that we can be considered as journalists because of our blogging methods about the readings?
ReplyDeleteI think that in a way, we can be considered a journalist in terms of a blog being seen as a digital magazine column.
ReplyDeleteAlthough technically we could describe ourselves as journalists because of the work we have being blogging, i personally wouldn't say that we are! Maybe someone who writes a blog based on a different topic could be thought of as a journalist but I think the nature of our blogs takes this idea away from us.