Blogosphere Phenomenon and Benefit

    

     A blog is basically a website, just a simple type of website that’s often updated (Raleigh, 2006). In reality, a blog is just a website but it takes on an important role in the digital and media world as its influence and number is immeasurable in the form of the blogosphere phenomenon.

     According to Technorati, there were over 35.3million blogs in April 2006 and doubling in size every six months since then. It is estimated to be 60 times bigger than it was years ago.

     In year 2011, blogs involving information on the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami were the most viewed among all other blog topics. One such example is ‘The Lede’, a news blog with relation to the New York Times reported updates on the earthquake and tsunami to the English-speaking public. These news trends prevailed in obtaining attention for many bloggers all across the globe.

     There are many theories of how blogs are beneficial to communities across the globe, one such theory is the deliberative democracy model, which highlights the role of open discussion. This also highlights the importance of citizen participation, freedom of speech and a well-functioning public sphere. Another theory is that blogging can build good relationships in terms of business between an industry and its clients (Holtz, 2006).

Reference:

·         David Goodman, J 2011, ‘Updates on the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan’, The New York Times, viewed 17 March 2012, http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/video-of-the-earthquake-and-tsunami-in-japan/,

·         Demopoulos, T 2006, ‘the Power of the Blogosphere’, Dearborn Trade, A Kaplan Professional Company, Chicago, IL, USA,

·         Gimmler, A 2001, ‘Deliberative democracy, the public sphere and the internet’. [online] Sage Publications. Available at: http://psc.sagepub.com/content/27/4/21,

·         Holtz, T 2006, ‘Blogging for Business : Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care’, Dearborn Trade, A Kaplan Professional Company, Chicago, IL, USA,

·         Hughes Jr, R 2006, ‘Current size of Blogosphere’, viewed 20 March 2012, http://open2learn.blogspot.com/2006/04/current-size-of-blogosphere-april-2006.html,

·         Technorati, n.d. Technorati Top 100. [online] Available at: <http://technorati.com/blogs/top100> [Accessed 17 March 2012].