New Media

With the advancement of technology and the internet, we're able to obtain information with just a click away. The birth of online media and social networking platforms have build a strong base of support for fast sharing information among the technology savvy and younger generations today.

Source: Hosting.ber-art.nl

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more are free platforms that enables sharing of information instantly to the whole world. Instead of traditional media such as newspapers that will print out today's news the next day, the internet enables these media go go online such as BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) to update their latest news almost instantly after the event. For example, the British royal wedding that happened recently was streamed live online and millions of people across the world are able to watch the event on the same day.

Source: The New York Times

According to Walsh (2006), a reader's reading path can be multi-linear and multi-directional. For example, The New York Times website layout as seen on the image above attracts the readers with header and photographs which will direct them to another page for more information on the article when they click on them. These user interface gives the readers an easy way to get information instantly. Layout, attractive images and interesting headlines is the key to attracting readers via new media as the readers attention is focused to their topic of interest immediately.

On the other hand, cultural boundaries (Schriver, 1997) must also be taken into consideration as layouts and symbols used must be understood by the readers. Reading sequence is important for the people's interpretation and understanding of the text whereby the most common reading pattern is from the left to right.

The existence of new media has made information readily available instantly to the mass audience compared to the traditional media. Nowadays, new media has enabled us to obtain information for free and we are easily connected to the whole world (Ketsdever, 2008). 

References

1. Ketsdever, N 2008, Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media and Web 2.0, viewed 6 May 2011, <http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-social-media/>

2. Shriver, K 1997, 'Chapter 6: The interplay of words and pictures', Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Publication, New York, p. 361-441. 

3. Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts,  Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Australia, vol. 29, p. 24-37.

Blogging Communities

What is a Blogging Community?

A blogging community is where a group of individuals who shares the same interest in a particular topic which they blog about. Blogging community also serves as a platform for individuals to connect and interact with each other. (Kinkeldi, 2007)

How to Create a Blogging Community?

Source: BlogLovin

Blogs can be shared through blogging communities such as Bloglovin where readers can follow their favourite bloggers according to categories and interest. Bloggers sign up at this community so that their posts will be updated and it is used as a form of interaction between the bloggers and readers by gaining more followers based on common interest.

To build a community around your blog, one must be able to:

(a) Create your own direction and style of your blog

Contents of a blog are mostly based on individual interests and this can help to narrow down the topics and attract readers who share the same interests. Layout of the blog is also important as simple and user friendly layouts will enable readers to navigate around your blog easily (Yoskovitz, 2007).

(b) Networking with other bloggers

Blogs provides a huge networking opportunities where bloggers can interact with one another. By networking, bloggers of the same interest will link up your website on theirs and vice versa thus creating a community where their readers can also refer to your blog while browsing through their blogs. Approaching established bloggers is also another method to build up your blogging community by supporting on another (Crowe & Holman  2011).

(c) Comments

Interacting with readers who post on your blog by replying their comments will build a rapport with readers and this will help build up readership as readers give their own opinions or agree with the topic that you have posted on your blog (Schaefer, 2011).

(d) Submit blog to blog directories and using tags

Submitting your blog to blog directories will automatically update and place your post in the search engines which has a higher chance of getting discovered by readers. Labeling your blog post with keywords according to the topic you have blogged about will also direct readers to your blog as internet searches from websites such as Google will pick up that keyword and eventually lead the readers to your blog. 

(e) Promoting your blog

With social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, blogs can be easily shared to friends by posting up blog links that will direct them to the website.

Types of blogging communities

According to White (2006), there are three main patterns of blog based community which are:

(I) One Blog Centric Community - A community formed through the blogger and the readers or commentors.

(II) Topic Centric Community - A network formation through common passion or topic.

(III) Boundaried Community - A collection of blogs and blog readers hosted in a single website. Example: A Malaysian blog community, Blog.my.

Foodbuzz

Source: Foodbuzz

Foodbuzz is an online food blog community which brings together food enthusiasts, people who share their recipes and passion for food blogging. Foodbuzz is a boundaried community which has tools of social networking features such as featured posts, polls, contests and more. Foodbuzz helps bloggers to grow their blog, as well as boost relations between bloggers, readers and food lovers. Recent updates and popular posts are published on Foodbuzz to keep the community updated.

References

1. Crowe, P & Holman K 2011, How to Create a Blogging Community, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2011/03/how-to-create-blogging-community.html>.

2. Kinkeldi, B 2007, Forging Connections and Promoting Growth Through Blog Communities, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://www.21publish.com/pub/21publish/blogging-whitepaper.pdf>.

3. Schaefer, M 2011, How do you REALLY build a blog community? A love story, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/05/05/how-do-you-really-build-a-blog-community-a-love-story/>

4. White, N 2006, Blogs and Community - launching a  new paradigm for online community?, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

5. Yoskotitz, B 2007, 8 Steps to Growing Your Blog Community One Person At a Time, viewed 5 May 2011, <http://www.instigatorblog.com/8-steps-to-growing-your-blog-community-by-1/2007/01/09/>.

Classifications of Blogs

By blogging, people share about their lives, expertise and issues but different individuals blog about different things based on their interest. Thus, these interests has contributed to the birth of many types of blogs on the internet.

According to Netchunks (2011), blogs can be classified by:

(a) Personal Blogs: Where the author of the blog shares about their lives or personal opinions on certain topics where he or she feels strongly about.

Source: MissyCheerio.com

(b) Corporate and Organizational Blogs: Blogs created by corporations or organizations to communicate with customers and also show the services that the company provides. Corporate blogs can help to improve the company's image and also building customer relations (Wirken, n.d)

 Source: DiGi

(c) Blogs by Genre: 

• Fashion

 Source: WhoWhatWear

• Food

Source: Seven Spoons

(d) Blogs by Media types: Blog post are posted using a different medium or format such as photographs, videos and more.

• Vlog (Video Blog)

Source: ShaneDawsonTV

• Photography Blog

Source: Shutter Sisters

(e) Blog by device: Blogs which are composed and posted using different devices such as mobile phones are known as moblog.

Source: Rachel Larratt's Moblog

As there are many blogs out there, sometimes it's hard to categorize blogs due to their combination of different styles. In my opinion, the best way to categorize blogs is to look at the genre or subject of the blog. This is because an amount of post of a particular genre will always be dominant due to individual interests, thus making it easier to identify the genre of the dominant subjects and categorizing the blogs that way although the blogger sometimes touch on other genres as well. 

For example, exhibition blogs as categorized by Simons (2008) states that these blogs consists mostly of artists, craftspeople and others who showcase their artworks, creations and also opinions. Although Simons (2008) categorization of blogs is straightforward, I believe that categorizing blogs by genre or subject is still the best way because Simons (2008) categorization does not include nor consider the specific subject of the blog. There can be many types of exhibition blogs because when broken down, it can be seen clearly that there are many other different type of artworks, individual styles and a particular genre of the art that the blog showcases. Categorizing by genre or subject is a much easier and reader friendly categorization as readers are able to search for the particular blogs based on their interest.

References

1. Chettri, S 2011, What is Blogging? What Are The Different Types of Blogs?, viewed 3 May 2011, <http://www.netchunks.com/different-types-of-blogs/>.

2. Simons, M 2008, Towards a taxanomy of blogs, viewed 3 May 2011, <http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0>.

3. Wirken, D n.d, Corporate Blogging: Dos and Donts, viewed 3 May 2011, <http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/186126/blogging/corporate_blogging_dos_and_donts.html>.

Blogs as the current phenomenon

A blog is a form of medium for a person or sometimes a few people, to share about their personal lives and even express their opinions on current issues or particular topics that the person feels like writing about (Problogger.net, 2005).

According to Technorati (2009), the size of the blogosphere has been increasing throughout the years as records tallied since 2002 shown there are about 133 million blogs worldwide.

Source: Technorati.com

Majority of the bloggers as seen from the image above (Technorati.com, 2010) are from the United States which consists of 49 percent. Whereas across Asia Pacific, the percentage is lower. Most bloggers in the US and Europe blog about their personal musings and there is also a high percentage of them whom blog about politics, technology and busineess. However in Asia, most bloggers which consist of youths say that blogging is a mean of communication for them to keep up and share their lives with friends and family (PRNewswire.com, n.d).

Information from blogs are useful as prevalent blogs in the US such as technology blogs keeps the consumers and potential buyers updated about the new features of a product. Customers are also able to compare and contrast products from different brands from product reviews and articles which are provided by the blogs. These information is useful as it helps consumers to be more aware of the product, therefore helping them in their purchasing process for the ones that suits their needs.

Politics wise, Malaysians has 20 percent of interest compared to the rest of Asia which consists only 14 percent (PRNewswire.com, n.d). Some politicians in Malaysia have their on blogs such as Malaysia's 6th Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who blogs at 1Malaysia.com.my. The citizens of Malaysia will be able to keep up with the latest activities the prime minister attended and also his answer to some questions posted by the people. Political blogs in Malaysia also benefits the citizens as it serves as a tool of freedom of speech to highlight on issues and concerns faced by the people so that the government can take notice and resolve the problem.

References

1. PRNewswire n.d , Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia, viewed 28 April 2011, <http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/blogging-phenomenon-sweeps-asia-56531722.html>. 

2.  Press Microsoft Malaysia 2006, Women Rule in Malaysian Blogosphere, viewed 28 April 2011, <http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2006/linkpage4337.mspx>.

3. Rowse, D 2005, What is a Blog?, viewed: 28 April 2011, <http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/02/05/what-is-a-blog/>.

4. Sobel, J 2010, State of the Blogosphere 2010 Introduction, viewed 28 April 2011, <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/>.

5. Winn, P 2009, State of the Blogosphere: Introduction, viewed 28 April 2011, <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-introduction/>.