The New Generation of Media Publishing

Because 'new' media could mean a lot of different technologies in different contexts, I will first define what meaning I am using in this post. Hence, this post will center mostly on the Internet aspect of new digital media, as it has brought along the most change amongst society today.

Image from mariapianegro.org

Straubhaar and LaRose (2004) cite the Pew Research Center when they say that the internet is now rivaling conventional print media as a source of news. Online news sources and political blogs have gone as far as influencing outcomes of electio

ns, as mentioned in an earlier blog post. In Malaysia, the rise of Malaysiakini.com provided an alternative view of the country compared to print publication which is tightly controlled by he government (Chin, 2003).

The emergence of online news and blogging also raises the question of whether or not bloggers can be considered journalists. Three bloggers were brought to court in 2005 for releasing information about an Apple product – because they were not 'legitimate members of the press', Apple took action (Hempel, 2005).

The emergence of new websites such as Flickr has brought on the emergence of 'user-generated content', so while conventional media are still creating content, others are also able to do so (Naughton, 2006). YouTube in particular is a useful tool for showcasing talent online for others to see. Many YouTube users such as Colbie Caillat and Marié Digby later went on to be international celebrities after posting their videos online and garnering fans.

As can be seen, the Internet has changed the landscape of communication greatly. The best way to succeed in this environment would be to adapt to the changes in technology.

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References

Chin, J 2003, 'Malaysiakini.com and its impact on journalism and politics in Malaysia', in Asia.com: Asia encounters the internet, eds KC Ho, R Kulver & K Yang, London, pp. 129 – 142.

Hempel, J 2005, Are bloggers journalists?, Bloomberg Businessweek, viewed 29 September 2010, http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2005/tc2005037_7877_tc024.htm

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, Reuters Fellowship, University of Oxford, viewed 29 September 2010, http://reutersinstitude.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf.

Straubhaar, J & LaRose, R 2004, Media now: understanding media, culture and technology, 4^th edn, Wadsworth, California.

Blogging -The Online Community

According to Kinkeldei (2007), a blog community could be a group of bloggers using the same platform such as Blogger and Xanga or even group blogs which are run by several people at once contributing to the same site. From a business standpoint, these communities are a way of connecting with other communities with similar interests (26weekplan, 2010).

The blog community should be extended externally through mediums such as Facebook and Twitter to reach a larger audience (Reed, 2009). Using permalinks – permanent links – is a good way of making sure that URLs from the blog will be able to gain traffic from search engines because of the use of keywords (Samuda, 2010). RSS - really simple syndication - feeds allow viewers to know when a blog has been updated. Comments on a blog allow the readers to interact with the author(s) regarding the topic discussed, allowing more interactivity and community-building. Tags are also a good way of maintaining viewer interest – delicious tag clouds for instance keep track of a site’s most popular bookmarks and allows easy navigation through related pages and links (Kinkleldei, 2007).

White (2006) lists three types of blogging communities. In the single blogger centric community, there is usually only one blogger and visitors to the blog can get further acquainted with the blogger and the regular people who comment and join in the discussion. The second kind, the central connecting topic community, is a vast group of blogs which are linked and connected over a shared passion or topic, such as food bloggers and sketch bloggers. The third kind of community, the boundary community is defined by White (2006) is the situation whereby many bloggers share the same blogging platform such as Myspace.

The Meek is an example of a single blogger centric community, since that it is a webcomic site updated solely by Der-shing Helmer. Since that is centers around a webcomic, it is also part of a larger community of webcomics which are linked to each other. There is also an RSS feed and this blog contains a comments section for viewers to post thoughts on the comic strips and an external link to a LiveJournal page devoted to the comic which encourages a sense of community amongst readers.

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References

26weekplan 2010, Blogging communities – Marketing plan week #10, online video, viewed 26 September 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJR_7cPhxUM.

Helmer, D 2010, The Meek, viewed 28 September 2010, http://www.meekcomic.com.

Kinkeldei, B 2007, Whitepaper blog communities: Forging connections and promoting growth through blog communities, 21Publish, viewed 27 September 2010, http://www.21publish.com/pub/21publish/blogging-whitepaper.pdf.

Reed, M 2009, How to build an online community, Community Spark, viewed 27 September 2010, http://www.communityspark.com/how-to-build-an-online-community/.

Samuda, RD 2010, 8 effective SEO techniques every Wordpress blogger should use, Blogging Pro, viewed 27 September, http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2010/06/14/8-effective-seo-techniques-every-wordpress-blogger-should-use/.

White, N 2006, Blogs and community – launching a new paradigm for online community?, The Knowledge Tree, viewed 27 September 2010, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.

A Look at Classifying Blogs

There are many ways to label a blog but not one definite one. Wordpress (n.d.) has nine general categories of blog types, as does Margaret Simons (2008). However, while both are listing blog genres, they do have their similarities and differences. For instance, Simons’ ‘Diary’ and ‘Popular Mechanics’ label is the same as Wordpress’ ‘Private’, ‘Personal’ and ‘How-To’ categories respectively. These only cover subject blogs. The image below shows the many types of topics a single blogger could cover.

Image from topleftdesign.com

Other types of blog mediums which also circulate the Internet include sketch blogs and video blogs which allows people converse directly with their viewers (Betancourt, 2009). Therefore, these blogs are classified according to their medium. Another form of categorising blogs is by target audience. Similarly, the author of the blog can define its classification – some blogs are handled individually as personal websites but others are managed by corporations to reach out to customers (Effective Corporate Blogging, 2009).

Then there are blogs which combine many mediums and subjects at once, which is the reason why there is trouble when it comes to finding a niche where each of them can fit neatly into. Blogging using many different mediums is effective because it allows the blogger to connect to its audience from multiple angles (Cheuvront, 2010).

In my opinion, the subject classification of blogs is the more effective mode of categorising. While it does not take into account medium and target audience, it does give a clear idea as to what the blog’s purpose is. Therefore, it is the best way to direct those interested in that particular subject towards the blog.

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References

Betancourt, L 2009, The complete guide to video blogging, Mashable, viewed 25 September 2010, http://mashable.com/2009/10/09/video-blogging/.

Cheuvront, M 2010, Connect with consumers from multiple angles using multiple mediums, Social Media Marketing, viewed 25 September 2010, http://www.socialmediamarketing.com/blog/connect-with-consumers-from-multiple-angles-using-multiple-mediums.

Effective Corporate Blogging 2009, Global Audit Information Network, The Institute of Internal Auditors, viewed 25 September 2010, www.theiia.org/download.cfm?file=96697.

Simons, M 2008, Towards a taxonomy of blogs, Australian Policy Online, viewed 25 September 2010, http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0.

Wordpress n.d. Types of blogs, viewed 25 September 2010, http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/.

The Blogosphere

Image from pamorama.net

The above image is an artist's rendition of the blogosphere. It has expanded magnificently over the past decade, booming from 4 million tracked blogs in 2004 to over 70 million in 2007 (Sifry, 2007). While more recent numbers are not supplied by Technorati, it can be assumed that the number has increased since then as the penetration rates of internet to the world population has risen by 444.8% over the last decade (Internet World Stats, 2010).

According to Rick Murray (2006) in an Edelman report, blog readership varies depending on the market, in this case, the geographic location. The same report notes that Asians read more blogs compared to Westerners - for example, the Japanese preferred to blog about daily lives (Kurosawa, 2006) while the British write about news and politics (Davies, 2006). A little closer to home, ten of the most popular blogs in Malaysia according to traffic include mostly politics and lifestyle themed blogs (Wong, 2009).

Modern society's exposure to these online weblogs has made them into a new form of media with its own degree of influence. A study conducted by Jupiter Research found that blogs have effects on public discussions and buying habits (Regan, 2006). In Malaysia, political blogs have an impact on the elections within the country - politicians who blog are more likely to garner votes compared to non-bloggers (Gong, 2010). This could be seen during the 2008 general elections where the opposition coalition won 82 out of 222 Parliamentary seats. Because the little control the government has on online material alternative media which are both anti-government and not exclusively pro-government is able to reach the masses. Hence, the society benefits by getting a broader perspective on the political landscape. As such, there are endless possibilities that can be achieved with the use of blogs.

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References

Edelman 2006, A Corporate Guide to the Global Blogosphere, StrategyOne, viewed 21 September 2010, http://www.edelman.com/image/insights/content/whitepaper011107sm.pdf.

Gong, R 2010, Internet politics and state media control: Candidate weblogs in Malaysia, Communication Policy Research South, viewed 24 September 2010, http://www.cprsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/drupal/Rachel%20Gong.pdf.

Internet World Stats 2010, Internet Usage Statistics: The Internet Big Picture, Miniwatts Marketing Group, viewed 21 September 2010, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.

Regan, T 2006, 'Blogs now have a world of influence', The Christian Science Monitor, 17 May, viewed 24 September 2010, http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0517/p14s01-cogn.html.

Sifry, D 2004, State of the Blogosphere, Technorati, viewed 21 September 2010, http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000245.html.

Sifry, D 2007, The State of the Wide Web, Technorati, viewed 21 September 2010, http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html.

Wong, A 2009, Top 100 Malaysian Blogs, Rice Blogger, viewed 24 September 2010, http://www.riceblogger.com/top-100-malaysian-blogs/.