Blogs as Current Phenomenon and Benefits to the Community

Blog, which alternatively called as weblog, ' ... is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information' (WordPress n.d.). Nowadays, with the growth of technology, blogs become more accessible and convenient.

Technorati is an Internet search engine that tracks and analyzes the growth and trend in the blogosphere. According to Yeager (2011), 'there have been more than 133,000,000 blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002'. The blogosphere is consistent doubling every six months and more than 75,000 blogs are created daily, as the two line graphs below show:

Weblogs Cumulative March 2003 - January 2006 (Sifry 2006)

New Blogs per Day (Sifry 2006)

In 2010, Technorati's findings focused on female bloggers and mobile blogging. The team found out that the impact of current social media causes changes on the trend in the blogosphere. Sobel (2010) states that 'as the blogosphere converges with social media, sharing of blog posts is increasingly done through social networks'. Below is the data collected by Technorati regarding how social media associate with blogs:

'How do you use the Facebook page associated with your blog?' (Sobel 2010)

There are different types of blog such as personal blogs, celebrity blogs and etc. The blogging trends in Middle East and Malaysia are mostly based on politics. Political blogs are prevalent in Middle East and Malaysia as they provide a public sphere which ' ... facilitates the public use of reason in rational-critical debate ...' (Naughton 2006, p. 7). Current movements such as Kifaya National Movement for Change in Egypt and Bersih 2.0 in Malaysia, were mostly brought out through blogs to fight for democracy. As Malky (2007) clarifies, ' ... blogs have provided the means for Kifaya's mobilization'. Same goes to Malaysia where information flow is restricted by rules and controlled by local government. Blog becomes one of the channels to reveal the hidden truth of information. For example, Voice of Malaysian benefits readers to voice their opinions on the current issues of Malaysia.

On the other hand, Asia countries such as Indonesia, entertainment and celebrity blogs are most likely to be visited in the countries. 'In Indonesia, the youth [dominates] the Indonesian blogosphere ... anything related to the entertainment industry like personal life of the celebrities will attract their attention' (Wee 2011). These famous blogs act as an effective tool in advertising. '[According to Kukuh], most advertisers believe bloggers are very good influencers. They have a large number of readers who usually seek recommendation about product [or] services they are willing to buy' (cited in Wee 2011). For instance, blog advertising markets such as Nuffnangs and Blogsvertise will reward the bloggers with ad income.

Therefore, blogs benefits the communities differently according to the current blogging trends in each country.

References:

Malky, RA 2007, Blogging for reform: the case of Egypt, Arab Media & Society, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://www.arabmediasociety.com/topics/index.php?t_article=39>.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>.

Sifry, D 2006, 'State of blogosphere, February 2006 part 1: on blogosphere growth', Sifry's alerts, blog posting, 6 February, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000419.html>.

Sobel, J 2010, State of blogosphere 2010, Technorati, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/>.

Wee, W 2011, idblogNetwork talks about the blogosphere in Indonesia, Penn Olson, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/07/18/blogs-in-indonesia/>.

WordPress n.d., Introduction to Blogging, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging>.

Yeager, B 2011, 'Blogging Statistics', The west program blog, blog posting, 19 April, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://thewestprogram.com/blog/505/blogging-statistics/>.