New Form of Media Publishing

Media is a form of communication and as stated by Naughton (2006), the communication environment has changed through time. The emergence of technology and global networking has caused an alteration to the communication sector (Naughton, 2006). The existence of video uploading sites such as Youtube and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is a new form of media publishing nowadays.

Alternate Media

Besides, the role of communication and journalism has change due to the existence of alternate online newspaper and social networking sites. Global alternate online newspaper such as UK Watch, Adbusters and Dissident Voice (world-newspapers.com, 2010) enable the society to obtain alternate information besides depending on the mainstream media for information and news.

New Trends in New Media

Nowadays, it is a trend to use social networking sites as a form of communication in the political sector which was made famous by the President of USA, Barack Obama. According to Nations (n.d.), Obama has used social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to convey his message to the public quicker and efficient. Besides, Obama made full use of Youtube during his election campaign by uploading the entire campaign speech to viewers rather than viewing a short clip of the speech in the news (Nations, n.d.).

Reference

Nations, D n.d., How Barack Obama is using Web 2.0 to run for president, About.com, viewed 20 September 2010, <http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/obama-web.htm>.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, Reuteurs Institute, viewed 19 September 2010, <http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html>.

World-newspapers.com 2010, Alternate news, viewed 21 September 2010, <http://www.world-newspapers.com/alternative-news.html>.

Blogging Community

The word ‘community’ is defined as a group of people in where the people share a common interest and would often share a common cultural heritage (Dictionary.com, 2010). In the ‘blogging community’, the community consist of bloggers which share a common interest which is to write blogs to speak out or share their interest with others.

Create a Blogging Community

In order to build a solid and strong blogging community, there are various methods and approaches to build a blogging community. As suggested by Acollins (2010), it is necessary for the blogger to insert the “share” option, in order for the audience to be able to “like” a certain post or comment. Besides, Acollins (2010) suggested that the blogger should spent some time reading other followers’ blog in order to increase audiences

Types of Blogging Communities

According to White (2006), the blogging community consists of three categories - single centric blogging community, boundaried blogging community and topic centric blogging community. The single centric blog is normally managed by a single blogger and the community centralised around that particular blogger (White, 2006) whereas the topic centric blog is linked by a common interest or topic among the bloggers such as movie blogs and food blogs (White, 2006). Boundaried communities blog as noted by White (2006) is a collection of blogs and readers based on a single platform, such as MySpace.com.

Reference

Acollins 2010, Build a stronger blog community by sharing and collaborating, Astonish Result News, viewed 19 September 2010, <http://www.astonishresultsnews.com/2010/07/30/astonish-bloggers-uniting/>.

Dictionary.com 2010, Community, viewed 16 September 2010, <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/community>.

White, N 2006, Blogs and community – launching a new paradigm for online community?, Australian Flexible Learning Framework, viewed 19 September 2010, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>.

Classification of Blogs

Blogs can be categorized according to many aspects such as based on the media or based on the subject matter of the blog. Corporate blogs or enterprise blogs is a form of classification of blogs which can be later classified based on external and internal (Enterpriseblogs.info, 2010). Branding blogs and sales blogs are examples of external corporate blogs whereas culture blogs is an example of internal corporate blog (Enterpriseblogs.info, 2010). Besides, blogs can also be classified according to the type of media such as video sharing, microblogs and social bookmarking (Onbloggingwell.com, n.d.).

Classification of Blogs

According to Simons (2008) style of classification of blogs, she classifies blogs into eight categories which are the pamphleteering blog, digest blog, advocacy blog, popular mechanics blog, exhibition blog, gatewatcher blog, diary, advertisement and news blog. Basically, Simons (2008) classify blogs based on the subject of the blog. Based on that, classifying blogs according to topics or subjects is the most suitable and appropriate way as classifying blogs according to audience and style would be inappropriate and inaccurate. For instance, classifying blogs based on the type of audience would be difficult to identify. A blog’s audiences would not just consist of those who are interested but also those who just glance through the blog and those who are uninterested.

Reference

Enterpriseblogs.info 2010, Corporate blogging, viewed 20 September 2010, <http://www.enterpriseblogs.info/corporate-blogging>.

Funnell, A 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, The Media Report, 19 September 2010, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript>.

Onbloggingwell.com n.d., 23 types of social media sites, viewed 20 September 2010, <http://onbloggingwell.com/23-types-of-social-media-sites/>.

Blog as Current Phenomenon

The size of blogosphere has been increasing year and year, in other words the size of the blogosphere is directly proportional through time. In a report of the size of blogosphere in Technorati, bloggers noted that they write blogs more in the year 2009 compared to the previous year, however, the opposite individuals stated that social networking sites are the reason behind the rate of decline in blogging (Berlin, 2009). According to Singer (2009), who has done a report on the State of the Blogosphere in the year 2009 with statistics. In the report, Singer (2009) stated that most of the bloggers write blogs to promote products to attract clients or to express their opinions and emotions through blogging

Trend and Benefits

The blogging trend in Malaysia would be personal blogs as teenagers in Malaysia would use blog as a medium for expressing their emotions and feelings instead of writing a diary or journal. The trend of personal blogs is normally prevalent or common in certain countries, notably Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. The benefit of personal blogs is that it is able to build a strong and construct blogging community and enable to create a medium for a more “personal” communication with friends, clients and interested readers (Perera, 2008).

Reference

Berlin, E 2009, Richard Jalichandra keynote: blogworld 2009, Technorati, viewed 19 September 2010, <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/richard-jalichandra-keynote-blogworld-2009/>.

Perera, G 2008, The personal benefits of blogging, Article Alley, viewed 19 September 2010, <http://www.articlealley.com/article_669123_15.html>.

Singer, A 2009, 70 usable stats from the 2009 State of the Blogosphere, The Future Buzz, 20 September 2010, <http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/12/10/blogging-stats-facts-data/>.