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/.