Blogs, a Current Phenomenon and its Benefits to the Community

(blogging.compendiumblog.com)

Blogs, a space where information can be communicated through the internet. Whether bloggers blog about their hobbies or are employed to do so as a part-time or full-time job, they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, despite of gender, race and age. It is a rapidly growing trend that is globalizing (Sussman 2009). With reference to Technorati, internet search engine and analysis for blogs, the current blogging phenomenon and its benefits to the community will be discussed here.

(venturebeat.com)

Technorati has tracked more than 57 million weblogs by October 2006 and is sill rapidly growing by the numbers. Furthermore, it was also analysed in 2008’s report that 900,000 blog posts are created every 24 hours. The size of the blogosphere is huge by numbers and is still constantly growing (Marketing Charts 2008 & McLean 2009).

The usage of (kauai.gov) Twitter is one of the leading global trends today, it is one of the most popular micro-blogging websites among the likes of Facebook, Tumblr and MySpace. It is used much more by bloggers compared to the general population (Sussman & Pritchett 2009).

Another trend is the prevalence of different types of blogs in different countries. For instance, the blogosphere in Iran was often turned to for critical political commentary especially during 2009’s presidential election. This resulted to a ban on numerous social networking sites, and soon enough, a blogger was imprisoned for blogging. Whereas in America, blogs were used as a free public sphere for forums and debates to take place in. It adds to the democratic process of their presidential election, because the public body had the space and rights to speak and persuade. Many believe that blogs played a big role in Obama’s presidential victory (Sussman 2008). Besides political impact, blogs also causes financial, educational, spiritual and social impacts.

(littleblackblog.net/government)

The community benefits tremendously from the existence of weblogs, it provides the public body the chance to participate in political debate, be up-to-date with the happenings of society and provides conveniences.

References:

1. Pritchett. D.J 2009, Hot collaboration trends in 2009: internal facebooks, sharepoint microblogging,expert location,and homegrown wikis, viewed on 19 April 2010, <http://www.sharingatwork.com/2009/10/hot-collaboration-trends-in-2009-internal-facebooks-sharepoint-microblogging-expert-location-and-homegrown-wikis/ >.
2. Marketing Charts 2008, Blogging Hits Mainstream, Integral to The Media Ecosystem, as viewed 18th September 2010, <http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/blogging-hits-mainstream-integral-to-media-ecosystem-6256/technorati-state-of-blogosphere-size-2008jpg/>.
3. McLean, J & Sussman, M 2009, State of the Blogosphere 2009, as viewed 19th September 2010, <http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/>.