Blog as current phenomenon & Its Benefits To The Community

Blog as current phenomenon

With the amount of information available to the public at the click of a mouse, the size of current blogosphere is growing rapidly. Nowadays regardless of whether you are a student, lecturer or professionals, all of us have different opinions and understanding based on the environment that we live in.

Thanks to the internet and the invention of weblog, people have access on sharing their view, understanding, & analysis on wide of range of issues that can generate online public attention & interest.

According to Technorati’s 2008 State of Blogosphere Report, Blogging is in fact a global phenomenon collectively creating close to one million posts every day. What’s more Blogs have representation in top ten web site lists across all key categories, and have become essential to the media ecosystem

As blogging has gained popularity among the online user over the past several years, the variety of topics and subjects discussed by bloggers are varied. However universally the most notable and popular topics are personal, lifestyle and technology as shown by the chart below:-

With a weblog created every second, the blogosphere is continuing to grow. It suggests, on average, the number of blogs is doubling every five months. (bbc.co.uk). Furthermore Technorati.com reported that 100,000 new blogs were being created every day, and 1.3 million blog posts were written. And now there is more than 57 million blogs and believes that 55% are active and updates at least every 2 months.

Benefit of blogging to the community

In the Malaysian context, The Malaysian bloggers are recognized globally with topic on politics. This is due to the fact that Malaysian media follows the authoritarians system of press that based on government’s manipulation, propagation and regulation over the mainstream media. Malaysia’s uncharitable climate for the press may have driven people to find ways to express themselves alternatively, in this case weblog, where the government finds it more difficult to pursue.

In relation to the statement above, Blogs is an alternative media that help community to share their view, opinion, ideas, and belief on wide range of issue and news. What's more blog are free and simple to set up as majority of the public nowadays have access to the internet.

From the community point of view, blogs have become vital news sources in their own right. For example, national disasters like Hurricane Katrina, The 2004 South Asian Tsunami, and other major events have lead to in-depth footages & reports when traditional media outlet were inadequate. Overall blogging increase community interest as it is quick and effective way for the public to get updates conveniently.

References

About Us 2008, Technorati.com, online, retrieved 6th April 2010,

<http://technorati.com/about/>

BBC News 2006, "Blogosphere sees healthy grow", online, retrieved 6th April 2010,<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6178611.stm>

Blogging Hits Mainstream, Integral to Media Ecosystem, online, retrieved 6th April 2010,

<http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/blogging-hits-mainstream-integral-to-media-ecosystem-6256/technorati-state-blogosphere-report-blog-topics-diverse-september-2008jpg>