Blog....Blogging

Blog is a short term of `web-blog`. Blog (What is a blog?, 2009) is different with another forms of web as it has many links to other sites. These statement also supported by Drezner & Farrel (2004, p.7). Duncan (2005) stated that the first time blog is used is by John Barger of the webblog RobotWisdom (robotwisdom.com) in December 2007.

Why Blog?

Different individuals have different answers to the question. People blog because they want to share their stories or some people do blogging to make money from it. Blog is not only tools to write stories about their dogs, cats, and gossip any more but also to reach wider audiences for spreading the business.

the Blogging Phenomenon

Blog can be used not only for writing stories but also for politics and even to advertise the products or services from companies as like in Blogger application, it has an option called AdSense for advertisement and also because blog can be used to reach wider audience as blogs are used by many people today.

How does blog have influence in politics? To answer that,we can consider term`blogosphere`. As stated by Drezner & Farrel (2004), it is a distribution of readers across the blog and interaction between significant blog and traditional media.

According to them, most of blogs are written in English. Blog is easy to enter. Although some blogs are old enough about five years old, the growth rate of blogging increased when Pyra Labs invented user-friendly Blogger and available for free through the website www.blogger.com and make blog in just ten minutes.

Blogosphere has grown rapidly. It is estimated there will be 120,000 new blogs (Technorati, 2008) created everyday. The growth can be seen from the explanation below.


(Source : Technorati, 2008)

In Asia, blogging is a trend. A study conducted by Microsoft; `Blogging phenomenon sweeps Asia` proved that (Technorati, 2009) half a population online in Asia have blogs. People spend more than three hours for blogging and mostly they are female (55%). Asia`s blogosphere is charged by youth with half of all bloggers under 25 to 24 years old.
The research showed that blogging is used to maintain and build social networking and express themselves.

Ooi (2006) stated that in Malaysia, political blogs are low in popularity except in Malaysia. Then there is a list of top 50 most influencial blogs in Malaysia that proved blogging is a hit including personal, technology and political blogs.

Then we move to Europe, Europe (2009) stated that around 3% (or 4 million) European internet users, actively write blogs. Bloggers in Europe are young, early adopters of new technologies and heavy internet users. Blogs are now considered as trusted source of information for European. In France, 90% of respondents familiar with blogs. In Germany, 55% have heard of blogs, 58% in Italy and 51% in Spain.

Blogging communities

Blog is beneficial to the community whether it is for political, social or business.

• Political

Blog is used to voice the opinion or fact about one`s country. In Malaysia, people like to read political blogs even though it is a sensitive topic. For instance are Jeff Ooi and Winter Wong blogs.

• Advertising

Advertisements in blog can capture more people to know about the products and services available in the market. When more people do blogging, advertisements become more important. Catch the market through modern way.

• Business

For small business, blogging is useful as it is cheap and still can reach customers to come. Customers can check the products or services and see the comment or description of them. For big business, blog is also beneficial as it can get the customers outside business` territory such as overseas customers.

• Social
  

Blog connects people all over the world. Blogging is cheap, convenient and fun. Bloggers can choose the style of writing they want and the design they like. They can share stories with everybody and express themselves. From there, social networking is built. That is one of reasons why youth like blogging.

Reference List:

Drezner, DW & Farrell, H 2004, the Power and Politics of Blogs, American Political Association, viewed on 10th June 2009, http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2006/0004480819&EDATE.

Duncan, R 2005, a Short History of Blogging, the Blog Herald, viewed on 10th June 2009, http://www.blogherald.com/2005/03/06/a-short-history-of-blogging/.

Europe 2009, European Travel Commission, viewed on 10th June 2009, http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/regional-overview/103-europe?start=7.

Ooi, J 2006, `Microsoft: '64% of Malaysian bloggers are female`, Screenshots, viewed on 10th June 2009, http://www.jeffooi.com/2006/12/64_of_malaysian_bloggers_are_f.php.

State of Blogosphere 2008, Technorati, viewed on 10th June 2009, http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/.

What is a blog? 2009, HNN, viewed on 10th June 2009,
http://hnn.us/articles/1572.html.