A journal plus a pen are the most traditional equipment people use in recording their daily personal experiences, feelings and observations. A computer plus an internet connection are the equipment people use in this era to share their comments, ideas, interests and experiences and this can be done through blogging.
What is a blog?
The term blog or weblog refers to the personal online journal or diary. Blogs are a medium for sharing personal diaries with the intended general public. They are regularly updated with the postings of the authors’ or bloggers’ points of view, experiences and commentaries. Blogs can either be used as a traditional diary which record things that happened for the day or for other purposes like discussing a particular topic (political, music, sports, movie and media) and promoting products. Other than text, a blog also consists of a collection of related links or websites recommended by the blogger. Additionally, other elements such as photographs, videos and audios can be uploaded into the blog.
The phenomenon of blogging is becoming increasingly popular. According to Dvorak (2002), there are five possible reasons why people blog, which are (1) ego gratification, (2) anti-depersonalization, (3) elimination of frustration, (4) societal need to share, (5) wanna-be writers. At the same time, they are communities who blog (PCMAG.com 2002).
“Ego gratification” refers to the people who want to be the centre of attention. They want people to realize who they are, what they think and what they have done in order to grab others' attention. “Anti-depersonalization” means people blog to differentiate themselves from the majority. “Elimination of frustration” means the elimination of frustration through blogging. People complain and comment on things that frustrate them in their lives, for example jobs and relationships. “Societal need to share” refers to those cynics who share. Finally, the “wanna-be writers” refers to those who wish to be a writer in publishing media and the blog has become the medium for them to write (PCMAG.com 2002).
A weblog is a new form of media publishing. Any person can publish their views and comments on blog via internet access. This is compared to other information media, for example, books and newspapers where not everyone has the ability to publish what they want to discuss or talk about. These media have more restrictions compared to the weblogs. In a weblog, anyone can be an author and write as they like. Furthermore, one of the advantages of the weblog is the ability to get immediate feedback from the those who read the blog.
Following are some links for some weblogs to give readers a further idea of what weblogs are and the phenomenon of weblogging today:
<http://technology.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=28229>
<http://blog.jackvinson.com/archives/2006/06/26/blogging_and_communities.html>
<http://www.blogarama.com/>
<http://blog.canadianjournalist.ca/blog>
<http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging>
<http://www.blogpulse.com/>
<http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-blogs.htm>
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,81500,00.asp>
<http://www.ajy.net/jmb/blogphenomenon.htm>
References
Dvorak, JC 2002, The blog phenomenon, PCMAG.COM, viewed 19 May 2007, <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,81500,00.asp>
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