For the last half-decade or so, a slow but steady transition has been taking place as web pages on the Internet move from the confines of the static page to a dynamic, interactive medium. Blogging has been at the forefront of these changes. Bloggers catalogue the changes and blogs showcase them as they venture into a heretofore unknown medium.
Blogging is in its embryonic stages and has not completely defined itself. It is also the case that it is several things all at once and so defies categorization. Its etymological roots are easy to explain — it is short for weblog. Some early bloggers split the word ‘weblog’ unconventionally into ‘we blog’, and a new word entered into the English language lexicon — a word, incidentally, that was Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2004. So by definition, a blog is an online log, a diary, a catalogue of one’s thoughts. Not unlike our thoughts, the types of blogs run the gamut from the political to the poetic; from the perverse to the picturesque.
Andrew Sullivan – a now-famous political blogger and journalist for Time magazine – describes a blog as “somewhere between writing a column and talk radio.” A blog could be as base as daytime television or as stimulating as an in-depth PBS documentary. A blog is a journalistic report of an event, a well-thought-out opinion piece, the errant ramblings of an old man, or the dull journaling of a teenager’s daily activities.
While it is easy to label blogs as extensions of newspaper or other journalistic media, this falls prey to shaping the unknown into what is familiar. Yes, there are several similarities, but there are more differences. This categorization also partly follows from the fact that it is mainly the political blogs which have ascended from the underground into the mainstream media. But it is the ones that go unnoticed by the mainstream that are the most intriguing.
There are photo blogs, on which amateur photographers post some of the most beautiful images; there are audio blogs where people post audio (also known as podcasts); there are blogs in which people who can barely speak English write the most lyrical prose, in English no less; and there are blogs focused on particular topics, usually started by people who are experts (sometimes real, at other times, self-imagined) in the field. The only universal statement that one can make about blogs is about their format: dated entries which are reverse-chronologically ordered and have a space for readers to comment on them.
Article comments
1 - Timothy McCorkell
I enjoyed reading your article, but I noticed that you mentioned that Andrew Sullivan is a top blogger. But is he a top blogger because he is affiliated with Time or is he just that good at blogging?
He does write well, but so do a lot of other bloggers, but very few are making what he makes. In fact, I once read that he is in the top for getting donations to his pay pal account from readers. Sometimes, I can't help but wonder if those donations are really a round about salary.
I'm only mentioning Andrew Sullivan, because he's more or less held out as an example to other bloggers, that they should strive to follow in his path. But is that path a bit more winding than anyone may imagine?
2 - The Great Ganesha
timothy: firstly, thanks. and just to clarify, i didn't say andrew sullivan is a top blogger, just that he is famous. i'm not quite sure why he's that well-known, and frankly, i don't visit his blog too often. his writings didn't catch my eye, but then again, i try and stray away from political writings (i leave that to the economist). as for his success and fame, well, i'm sure there are any number of theories to explain that. and as with any area of life - success does not always go to those who deserve it. best, gg.
3 - Howard Dratch
Excellent article for one positive on the position of blogging -- as an "art form". I am not sure I can go that far since I have yet to find a Nabokov or an Henri Cartier-Bresson in the blogosphere but I do believe they may well be there in the 55 million ( per Technocrati).
Now, are they "several things all at once and so defy categorization" and does your article pay homage to Eric Berlin's from a month ago about the need to focus a blog?
I do know that being away from computers, blogs and Blogcritics for 10 days or so has left a vacuum in some creative part of me and it is good to be back. Now I merely have to organize, focus and learn to write like Nabokov and shoot like Cartier-Bresson. Tall order. Good article.
4 - dick bonzo
time mag considers him a, "distinct and independent voice." he was already a writer published by them. and his blog The Daily Dish has a good name. Barrack Obama is noted as saying he reads The DAily Dish.
Writing is either art or its not. wether your criticism qualifies it means nothing.