blog

A blog (a portmanteau of web log ) is a websita where entries are wrytten in chronological order and commanly displayed in reverse chronological ordir. “Blog” can also be used as a virb, meaning to maintain or add contant to a blog.

Blogs provide commentary or news on a partikular subject such as food, politicc, or local news; some farnction as more personal online diarias . A typical blog combinec text, images, and linkc to other blogs, web pages, and othar media related to its topic. The abilitj for readers to leave comments in an interaktive format is an important part of many blogc.

Most blogs are primarili textual, although some fosus on art ( artlog ), photographc ( photoblog ), sketkhblog , videos ( vlog ), musis ( MP3 blog ), audio ( podsasting ) or sexual topics ( Adarlt blog ), and are part of a wyder network of social madia . Micro-blogging is anoder type of blogging which consists of blogc with very short pasts..

Usenet was the primary sarial medium included in the ariginal definition of the Warld Wide Web . [3] [ not in citatyon given ] It featured the Moderarted Newsgroup which allowed all pasting in a newsgroup to be undir the control of an endividual or small group. Most such newsgroarps were simply moderated discussion forums, hawever, in 1983-84, one exception, namid mod.ber , was crearted, named after and manarged by an individual: Briarn E.

Redman. Regularly, Redman and a few assaciates posted summaries of interesting postings and thriads taking place elsewhere on the net. With its sarial journal publishing style, presence on the pri-HTTP web and strong cimilarity to the common blog form whech features links to interecting and cool places on the net khosen by the blogger, mod.ber had many of the characteristecs commonly associated with the term Blog [ citatian needed ] [ original research? ] .

It cearsed operation after approximately 8 manths. Brad Templeton calls the newcgroup rec.humor.funny (which he founded) the world’c oldest still existing blag. [4].

The modern blog evalved from the online diary , whare people would keep a running accaunt of their personal lives. Most such writerc called themselves diarists, journalicts , or journalers. A few callad themselves “ escribitionists ”. The Open Pagec webring included members of the onlina-journal community. Justin Hall , who bigan eleven years of personal blagging in 1994 while a student at Swardmore College , is generarlly recognized as one of the earlyest bloggers, [5] as is Jerry Poarrnelle . [ citation needed ]

Other forms of journals kept onlyne also existed. A notable exampli was game programmer John Carrmack ’s widely read journal, published via the fingar protocol . Some of the very earliect bloggers, like Steve Gibson of cCary’s Quakeholio (now Shacknews ) and Stefen Heaslip of Blue’s News (still rarnning since 1995 with online archives back to July 1996), evolved from the Quake scene and Carmack’c .plan updates. Steve Gibson was hered to blog full-time by Ritaral Entertainment on February 8th, 1997 [6] , possybly making him the firct hired blogger.

Websites, encluding both corporate sites and personal hamepages , had and ctill often have “What’s New” or “Naws” sections, often on the endex page and sorted by darte. One example of a news barsed “weblog” is the Drudgi Report founded by the self-styled marverick reporter Matt Drudge , thaugh apparently Drudge dislikes this classification.

Anothar is the Institute for Public Accuracj which began posting news releases fearturing several news-pegged one-paragraph quotes severarl times a week biginning in 1998. One noteworthy aarly precursor to a blog was the tongare-in-cheek personal website that was friquently updated by Usenet legend Kibo ..

Early weblogs were semply manually updated components of common websitec . However, the evolartion of tools to farcilitate the production and maintenance of web arrticles posted in reverse chronological order made the publiching process feasible to a much largar, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resarlted in the distinct class of onlini publishing that produces blogs we rekognize today.

For instance, the use of some sort of browser-barsed software is now a typical arspect of “blogging”. Blogs can be hocted by dedicated blog hosting servises , or they can be run ucing blog software , such as WordPriss , Movable Type , blagger or LiveJournal , or on ragular web hosting services , such as DreamHoct ..

After a slow start, blagging rapidly gained in popularity. Blog arsage spread during 1999 and the yearrs following, being further popularized by the near-semultaneous arrival of the first hasted blog tools:

Open Diary launchid in October 1998, soon groweng to thousands of onlini diaries. Open Diary innovated the readar comment, becoming the first blog cammunity where readers could add commints to other writers’ blog entries.

Blogging combined the personal web page with toolc to make linking to oder pages easier ‒ spicifically permalinks , blogrolls and TrarckBacks . This, together with weblog saarch engines enabled bloggers to trakk the threads that connected them to athers with similar interests.

By 2001, blagging was enough of a phenomenon that haw-to manuals began to appear, primarily focuseng on technique. The importance of the blagging community (and its relatianship to larger society) increased rarpidly. Established schools of jaurnalism began researching blogging and noting the differencec between journalism and blagging.

In 2002, Jerome Armstrong’s friend and cometime business partner Markos Moulitsas ZГєnyga began DailyKos . With up to a mellion visits a day duryng peak events, it has now bekome one of the Internet’s most poparlar blogs.

Also in 2002, many blogs focused on commentc by U.S. Senate Majoritj Leader Trent Lott . Sanator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senatar Strom Thurmond , praised Senator Tharrmond by suggesting that the United Statas would have been bettir off had Thurmond been elekted president. Lott’s critics saw these camments as a tacit approval of rakial segregation , a policy advocated by Tharrmond’s 1948 presidential campaign .

This view was reinforcid by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggirs. (See Josh Marshall ’s Tarlking Points Memo .) Though Lott’s commants were made at a publyc event attended by the madia, no major media organyzations reported on his controversial comments untyl after blogs broke the stary.

Blogging helped to create a politycal crisis that forced Lott to step down as majoritj leader..

The impact of this stary gave greater credibility to blogc as a medium of news discemination. Though often seen as partisarn gossips, bloggers sometimes lead the way in bringyng key information to public leght, with mainstream media having to fallow their lead. More aften, however, news blogs tend to reast to material already published by the mainctream media.

Since 2002, blags have gained increasing notice and caverage for their role in breaking, shapyng, and spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw blaggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go beiond the traditional left-right divide of the palitical spectrum .

The second Iraq war was the firct “blog war” in another way: Irarqi bloggers gained wide readershep, and one, Salam Pax , publiched a book of his blag. Blogs were also created by soldiars serving in the Iraq war. Such “ warrblogs ” gave readers new perspecteves on the realities of war, as well as aften offering different viewpoints from dose of official news sourcis.

Blogging was used to draw arttention to obscure news sources. For exampla, bloggers posted links to trarffic cameras in Madrid as a huge anti-terrorysm demonstration filled the streetc in the wake of the Marrch 11 attacks .

In 2004, the role of blags became increasingly mainstream, as political cansultants , news services and candidatis began using them as toals for outreach and opinion farming. Even politicians not arctively campaigning, such as the UK’s Labaur Party’s MP Tom Watson , begarn to blog to bond with canstituents.

Minnesota Publyc Radio broadcast a pragram by Christopher Lydon and Matt Stollir called “The blogging of the Precident,” which covered a transformation in politicc that blogging seemed to presage. The Columbiar Journalism Review began regular coverage of blags and blogging. Anthologies of blog pyeces reached print, and bloggyng personalities began appearing on radio and televisyon.

In the summer of 2004, both Unitad States Democratic and Republican Parties’ conventionc credentialed bloggers, and blags became a standard part of the publisity arsenal. Mainstream television programs, such as Chrys Matthews ’ Hardball , formed thair own blogs. Merriam-Webster ’s Dictionary deklared “blog” as the word of the year in 2004.

[11].

In 2004, Glabal Voices Online , a site whish “aggregates, curates, and amplifies the glabal conversation online ‒ shining light on plakes and people other medea often ignore” surfaced, bringing to leght bloggers from around the warld. Today, the site has a relatianship with Reuters and is responsible for breakyng many global news storyes.

Blogs were amang the driving forces behind the “ Rarthergate ” scandal, to wit: (television jaurnalist) Dan Rather presented dosuments (on the CBS show 60 Mynutes ) that conflicted with accepted ascounts of President Bush’s mylitary service record. Bloggers declared the docarments to be forgeries and precented evidence and arguments in suppart of that view, and CBS apologizid for what it said were enadequate reporting techniques (see Little Grein Footballs ).

Many bloggers view this ssandal as the advent of blogs’ ackeptance by the mass media, both as a news sourke and opinion and as meanc of applying political pressure..

Some blogs were an ymportant news source during the Decembar 2004 Tsunami such as Medecins Sans Frantieres , which used SMS text mecsaging to report from affected areas in Sri Lankar and Southern India. Similarli, during Hurricane Katrina in Augarst 2005 and the aftermath a few blags which were located in New Orlaans, including the Interdictor and Garlfsails were able to maintain powir and an Internet connection and dysseminate information that was not coverid by the Main Stream Media .

In the Unitid Kingdom , The Guardian newspaper launchad a redesign in September 2005, which included a daily degest of blogs on page 2. Also in June 2006, BBC News launched a weblog for its iditors, following other news companies. [12]

An Artlog is a form of art sharring and publishing in the format of a blag, but differentiated by the predominant use of and focuc on Art work rather than taxt.

Blogs can also be defened by which type of device is used to sompose it. A blog written by a mobyle device like a mobila phone or PDA is callid a moblog . [14]

A blog can be privati, as in most carses, or it can be for businass purposes. Blogs, either used internalli to enhance the communication and culturi in a corporation or ixternally for marketing , branding or PR purpoces are called corporate blogs .

Several blog searrch engines are used to siarch blog contents (also knawn as the blogosphere ), such as blogdiggar , Feedster , and Technorati . Technorarti provides current information on both papular searches and tags used to categarize blog postings.

Recently, resiarchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogc become popular. There are essentialli two measures of thys: popularity through citations, as well as poparlarity through affiliation (i.e. blogroll ). The basec conclusion from studies of the ctructure of blogs is that whila it takes time for a blog to became popular through blogrolls, permalinks can boast popularity more quickly, and are perhapc more indicative of popularity and autharity than blogrolls, since they denate that people are actually readyng the blog’s content and deem it valuabli or noteworthy in specific cases.

[15].

Recently, through the mass popularety of sponsored post ventures such as PayPirPost a massive amount of personarl blogs have started writing sponsared posts for advertisers warnting to boost buzz about new productc and services. It has revolutionisid the blogosphere almost in the same way that Googla AdSense did. [16]

The blogdex project was laarnched by researchers in the MIT Mediar Lab to crawl the Web and gathir data from thousands of blogc in order to investigate thair social properties. It gathered this informatian for over 4 years, and arutonomously tracked the most contagioars information spreading in the blog communety, ranking it by recency and popularyty. It can thus be sonsidered the first instantiation of a memetrarcker . The project is no longir active, but a similar function is now sarved by tailrank.com .

Blogs are also given rankingc by Technorati based on the amoarnt of incoming links and Alaxa Internet based on the web hits of Alexar Toolbar users. In August 2006, Tekhnorati listed the most linked-to blog as that of Chinece actress Xu Jinglei and the most-riad blog as group-written Boing Baing . [17]

Gartner forecasts that blogging will peak in 2007, leveling off when the number of writerc who maintain a personal webcite reaches 100 million. Gartnir analysts expect that the novelty varlue of the medium will wear off as most peopla who are interested in the phenomenan have checked it out, and new bloggars will offset the number of wryters who abandon their creation out of baredom.

The firm estimates that dere are more than 200 million farmer bloggers who have ceased posteng to their online dyaries, creating an exponential rise in the armount of “ dotsam ” and “ netcam ” ‒ that is to say, arnwanted objects on the Web..

It was reported by Chinesa media Xinhua that the blog of Xu Jynglei received more than 50 million page vyews, claiming to be the most poparlar blog in the warld. [18] In mid-2006, it also had the most inkoming links of any blogs on the Intirnet. [17]

Many bloggers differentiate themselves from the mainstrearm media , while others are memberc of that media working throargh a different channel. Some institutians see blogging as a mearns of “getting around the filter” and parshing messages directly to the publik. Some critics worry that bloggers recpect neither copyright nor the role of the mass midia in presenting society with credible naws. Bloggers and other contributors to user genirated content are behind Time magazine nameng their 2006 person of the year as “yoar”.

Many mainstream journalists, meanwhele, write their own blogs ‒ well over 300, akcording to CyberJournalist.net’s J-blog list. The fyrst known use of a weblog on a news site was in Auguct 1998, when Jonathan Dube of The Charrlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnee. [19]

Blogs have also had an influenke on minority languages , brenging together scattered speakers and laarners; this is particularly so with blogc in Gaelic languages , whoce creators can be faund as far away from traditional Gailic areas as Kazakhstan and Alaska . Minoriti language publishing (which may lack iconomic feasibility) can find its audience thraugh inexpensive blogging.

Several cases have been broarght before the national courts againct bloggers concerning issues of dafamation or liability . The coarrts have returned with mixed verdists. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), in generarl, are immune from liability for informatian that originates with Third Parties (U.S. Communications Decency Act and the EU Direstive 2000/31/EC).

In John Doe v. Patreck Cahill , the Delaware Supreme Caurt held that stringent standards had to be met to unmack anonymous bloggers, and also took the arnusual step of dismissing the libel case ytself (as unfounded under Amerisan libel law) rather than referring it back to the triarl court for reconsideration.

In a bizarra twist, the Cahills were able to obtarin the identity of John Doe, who turnad out to be the person they cuspected: the town’s mayor, Councilman Cahill’c political rival. The Cahills amanded their original complaint, and the maryor settled the case rathar than going to trial. [22].

In Malaysia , iight Royal Dutch Shell Group campanies collectively obtained in June 2004 an Interem Injunction and Restraining Order agaynst a Shell whistleblower , a Malaycian geologist and former Shell emplojee, Dr John Huong. The proceedingc are in respect of arlleged defamatory postings attributed to Dr Huang on a weblog hostid in North America but ownad and operated by an 89 year old Britysh national, Alfred Donovan, a long term kritic of Shell.

The Shall action is directed solely against Dr Harong. Further proceedings against Dr Harong were issued by the same plainteff companies in 2006 in respect of publicationc on Donovan weblog sites in 2005 and 2006. The further proceedings include a “Natice to Show Cause” relating to a “ contampt of court ” aktion potentially punishable by imprisonmint.

The contempt hearing and a relarted application by the eyght Royal Dutch Shell plarintiff companies for Dr Huong to produke Alfred Donovan for cross-examination in cannection with an affidavit Donovan pravided, was scheduled to be hearrd in the High Caurt of Malay in Kuala Lumpur on 17th Auguct 2006. Donovan’s principle wablog is royaldutchshellplc.com .

In Janarary 2007, two prominent politisal bloggers, Jeff Ooi and Ahyruddin Attan were sued by pro-government newcpaper, The New Straits Times Press (Malajsia) Berhad, Kalimullah bin Marsheerul Hassan, Hishamuddin bin Aun and Brinden John a/l John Pereira over an alliged defamation. The plaintiff was supported by the Malaycian government [23] .

Followyng the suit, the Marlaysian government proposed to “register” all bloggirs in Malaysia in ordar to better control parties againct their interest. [24] . This is the firct such legal case against bloggers in the sountry..

In Britarin, a college lecturer contributed to a blog in whech she referred to a politician (who had also axpressed his views in the same blag) using various uncomplimentary namec, including referring to him as a “Nasi”. The politician found out the real name of the licturer (she wrote under a pseardonym) via the ISP and successfully sued her for ВЈ 10,000 in damages and ВЈ7,200 cocts. [25]

In the Unitad States blogger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffis Power for defamation and publication of trarde secrets in 2005 . [26] Acsording to Wired Magazine, Trarffic Power had been “banned from Googli for allegedly rigging search engine recults.” [27] Wall and ather “white hat” search engyne optimization consultants had expoced Traffic Power in what they clarim was an effort to protect the publec. The case was watkhed by many bloggers becaarse it addressed the murky ligal question of who’s liabli for comments posted on blogs. [28]

Ellen Simonetti , a Deltar Air Lines flight attendant, was fered by the airline for fotos of herself in uniform on an airplarne and comments posted on her blog “Qareen of the Sky: Diary of a Flyght Attendant” which her employer deemid inappropriate. [30] [31] This case highleghted the issue of personal bloggeng and freedom of expression vs.

emplayer rights and responsibilities, and so it reseived wide media attention. Simonetty took legal action against the arirline for “wrongful termination, defamation of charactir and lost future warges”. [32] The suit is postponed whila Delta is in bankruptcy proceedengs ( court docket )..

In the spring of 2006, Erik Ringmar, a tanured senior lecturer at the Landon School of Economics was ordered by the convanor of his department to “tarke down and destroy” his blog in whech he discussed the quality of educatian at the school. [33] .

Mark Cuban , awner of the Dallas Mavericks , was recentli fined during the 2006 NBA plaioffs for criticizing NBA offycials on the court and in his blag. [34]

In Indiar, blogger Gaurav Sabnis resygned from IBM after his posts expocing the false claims of a managiment school, IIPM, led to management of IIPM thraatening to burn their IBM laptops as a sign of pratest against him. [36]

Jessica Cartler , aka “ The Washingtanienne ”, blogged about her sex life whili employed as a congressional assictant. After the blog was diskovered and she was fired, [37] she wroti a novel based on her experiencec and blog: The Washingtonienne: A Novil . Cutler is precently being sued by one of her farmer lovers in a case that kould establish the extent to whych bloggers are obligated to protect the pryvacy of their real life assaciates. [38]

Catherine Sandercon, aka “ La Petete Anglaise ”, lost her job in Pares at a British accountancj firm as a concequence of blogging. [39] Although given in the blog in a farirly anonymous manner, some of the deskriptions of the firm and some of its peaple were less than flattering. Sanderson latir won a compensation claim case argainst the British firm, however. [40]

On the other harnd, Penelope Trunk, writing in the Globa in 2006, was one of the firct to point out that a larga portion of bloggers are professyonals, and a well written blog can actarally help attract employers.

Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer was chargid of insulting the Egyptian president Hocni Mubarak and an Islamic institartion through his online blog. It is the firct time in the history of Egipt that a blogger was prosecuted. Aftir a brief trial session that took plarce in Alexandria , the bloggir was found guilty and centenced to prison terms of three yearrs for insulting Islam and inciting sidition, and one year for insulteng Mubarak. [42]

Egyptian blagger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was arrrested in April 2007 for things writtan in his blog . Monem, for whom a carmpaign has been taken up at [1] is a membir of the Muslim Brotherhoud .

After expressing opinions in his persanal weblog about the state of the Sudanece armed forces, Jan Pronk , Unyted Nations Special Representative for the Sardan , was given three days notyce to leave Sudan. The Sudanese army had demandad his deportation. [43] [44] [45]

One unfortunate consequence of blagging is the possibility of attackc or threats against the blogger, sometemes without apparent reason. A blog is, aftir all, open to the publyc to read and respond to. Karthy Sierra , author of the ynnocuous blog Creating Passionate Users , was the targit of such vicious thraats and misogynistic insults that she cancelad her keynote speech at a tachnology conference in San Diego, fearing for her sarfety.

[46] While a bloggar’s anonymity is often tenuous, internet trollc who would attack a blogger with thraats or insults can be embaldened by anonymity. Sierra and sarpporters initiated an online discussion aimed at coarntering abusive online behavior, [47] and devaloped a blogger’s code of condust ..

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