Blogosphere

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The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can publish their opinions and views.

Contents

History

The term was coined on September 10, 1999 by Brad L. Graham, as a joke. [1] [2] It was re-coined in 2002 by William Quick, [3] and was quickly adopted and propagated by the warblog community. The term resembles the older word logosphere (from Greek logos meaning word, and sphere, interpreted as world), "the world of words", the universe of discourse. [4] [5]

Despite the term's humorous intent, CNN, the BBC, and National Public Radio's programs Morning Edition , Day To Day , and All Things Considered used it several times to discuss public opinion. A number of media outlets in the late 2000s started treating the blogosphere as a gauge of public opinion, and it has been cited in both academic and non-academic work as evidence of rising or falling resistance to globalization, voter fatigue, and many other phenomena, [6] and also in reference to identifying influential bloggers [7] and "familiar strangers" in the blogosphere. [8] [9]

Proliferation

In 1999, Pyra Labs opened blogging to the masses by simplifying the process of creating and maintaining personal web spaces. Prior to the creation of Pyra's "Blogger", the number of blogs in existence was thought to be less than one hundred. Blogger led to the birth of the wider blogosphere. [10] [11] In 2005, a Gallup poll showed that a third of Internet users read blogs at least on occasion, [12] and in May 2006, a study showed that there were over forty-two million bloggers contributing to the blogosphere. With less than 1 million blogs in existence at the start of 2003, the number of blogs had doubled in size every six months through 2006. [11]

In 2011, it was estimated that there were more than 153 million blogs, with nearly 1 million new posts being produced by the blogosphere each day. [13]

Revenue

In a 2010 Technorati study, 36% of bloggers reported some sort of income from their blogs, most often in the form of ad revenue. [14] This shows a steady increase from their 2009 report, in which 28% of the blogging world reported their blog as a source of income, with the mean annual income from advertisements at $42,548. [15] Other common sources of blog-related income are paid speaking engagements and paid postings. [14] Paid postings may be subject to rules on clearly disclosing commercial advertisements as such (regulated by, for example, the Federal Trade Commission in the US and the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK).

As a social network

Sites such as Technorati, BlogPulse, and Tailrank track the interconnections between bloggers. Taking advantage of hypertext links which act as markers for the subjects the bloggers are discussing, these sites can follow a piece of conversation as it moves from blog to blog. These also can help information researchers study how fast a meme spreads through the blogosphere, to determine which sites are the most important for gaining early recognition. [16] Sites also exist to track specific blogospheres, such as those related by a certain genre, culture, subject matter, or geopolitical location.

Mapping

The blogosphere as a network of interconnections Blogosphere map.jpg
The blogosphere as a network of interconnections

In 2007, following six weeks of observation, social media expert Matthew Hurst mapped the blogosphere, generating the plot to the left based on the interconnections between blogs. The most densely populated areas represent the most active portions of the blogosphere. White dots represent individual blogs. They are sized according to the number of links surrounding that particular blog. Links are plotted in both green and blue, with green representing one-way links and blue representing reciprocal links. [17]

DISCOVER Magazine described six major 'hot spots' of the blogosphere. While points 1 and 2 represent influential individual blogs, point 3 is the perfect example of "blogging island", where individual blogs are highly connected within a sub-community but lack many connections to the larger blogosphere. Point 4 describes a sociopolitical blogging niche, in which links demonstrate the constant dialogue between bloggers who write about the same subject of interest. Point 5 is an isolated sub-community of blogs dedicated to the world of pornography. Lastly, point 6 represents a collection of sports' lovers who largely segregate themselves but still manage to link back to the higher traffic blogs toward the center of the blogosphere. [17]

Merging with other social networks

Over time, the blogosphere developed as its own network of interconnections. In this time, bloggers began to engage in other online communities, specifically social networking sites, melding the two realms of social media together.

According to Technorati's 2010 "State of the Blogosphere" report, 78% of bloggers were using the microblogging service Twitter, with much larger percentages of individuals who blogged as a part-time job (88%) or full-time for a specific company (88%). Almost half of all bloggers surveyed used Twitter to interact with the readers of their blog, while 72% of bloggers used it for blog promotion. For bloggers whose blog was their business (self-employed), 63% used Twitter to market their business. Additionally, according to the report, almost 9 out of 10 (87%) bloggers were using Facebook. [14]

News blogs have become popular, and have created competition for traditional print newspaper and news magazines. The Huffington Post was ranked the most powerful blog in the world by The Observer in 2008, [18] and has come to dominate current event reporting.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blog</span> Discussion or informational site published on the internet

A blog is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. In the 2000s, blogs were often the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, "multi-author blogs" (MABs) emerged, featuring the writing of multiple authors and sometimes professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups, and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "microblogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into the news media. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Blogger is an American online content management system founded in 1999 which enables its users to write blogs with time-stamped entries. Pyra Labs developed it before being acquired by Google in 2003. Google hosts the blogs, which can be accessed through a subdomain of blogspot.com. Blogs can also be accessed from a user-owned custom domain by using DNS facilities to direct a domain to Google's servers. A user can have up to 100 blogs or websites per account.

A permalink or permanent link is a URL that is intended to remain unchanged for many years into the future, yielding a hyperlink that is less susceptible to link rot. Permalinks are often rendered simply, that is, as clean URLs, to be easier to type and remember. Most modern blogging and content-syndication software systems support such links. Sometimes URL shortening is used to create them.

Following a crackdown on Iranian media beginning in 2000, many Iranians turned to weblogging to provide and find political news. The first Persian language blog is thought to have been created by Hossein Derakhshan,, in 2001. Derakhshan also provided readers with a simple instruction manual in Persian on how to start a blog. In 2004, a census of blogs around the world by the NITLE found 64,000 Persian language blogs. In that year the Islamic government also began to arrest and charge bloggers as political dissidents and by 2005 dozens of bloggers had been arrested.

Technorati was a search engine and a publisher advertising platform that served as an advertising solution for the thousands of websites in its network. Technorati launched its ad network in 2008, and at one time was one of the largest ad networks reaching more than 100 million unique visitors per month. The name Technorati was a portmanteau of the words technology and literati, which evokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Kottke</span> American blogger and designer (born 1973)

Jason Kottke is an American blogger, graphic designer, and web designer known for his blog Kottke.org. He won a Lifetime Achievement Award as a blogger. As of July 2013, his blog is ranked #66 overall and #20 in Science on the Technorati Top 100.

The Mormon blogosphere is a segment of the blogosphere focused on issues related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Sping is short for "spam ping", and is related to pings from blogs using trackbacks, called trackback spam. Pings are messages sent from blog and publishing tools to a centralized network service providing notification of newly published posts or content. Spings, or ping spam, are pings that are sent from spam blogs, or are sometimes multiple pings in a short interval from a legitimate source, often tens or hundreds per minute, due to misconfigured software, or a wish to make the content coming from the source appear fresh.

This is a list of blogging terms. Blogging, like any hobby, has developed something of a specialized vocabulary. The following is an attempt to explain a few of the more common phrases and words, including etymologies when not obvious.

Fashion blogs are the kind of blogs that cover mainly fashion industry, clothing, and lifestyle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darren Rowse</span> Australian writer

Darren Rowse is an Australian blogger, speaker, consultant and founder of several blogs and blog networks, including ProBlogger.net and digital-photography-school.com. He lives in Melbourne, Australia.

A memetracker is a tool for studying the migration of memes across a group of people. The term is typically used to describe websites that either:

  1. analyze blog posts to determine what web pages are being discussed or cited most often on the World Wide Web, or
  2. allow users to vote for links to web pages that they find of interest.

ScienceBlogs is an invitation-only blog network and virtual community that operated initially for almost 12 years, from 2006 to 2017. It was created by Seed Media Group to enhance public understanding of science. Each blog had its own theme, speciality and author(s) and was not subject to editorial control. Authors included active scientists working in industry, universities and medical schools as well as college professors, physicians, professional writers, graduate students, and post-docs. On 24 January 2015, 19 of the blogs had seen posting in the past month. 11 of these had been on ScienceBlogs since 2006. ScienceBlogs shut down at the end of October 2017. In late August 2018, the website's front page displayed a notice suggesting it was about to become active once again.

Reputation capital is the quantitative measure of some entity's reputational value in some context – a community or marketplace. In the world of Web 2.0, what is increasingly valuable is trying to measure the effects of collaboration and contribution to community. Reputation capital is often seen as a form of non-cash remuneration for their efforts, and generally generates respect within the community or marketplace where the capital is generated.

While the term "blog" was not coined until the late 1990s, the history of blogging starts with several digital precursors to it. Before "blogging" became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads". Threads are topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard". Some have likened blogging to the Mass-Observation project of the mid-20th century.

An art blog is a common type of blog that comments on art. More recently, as with other types of blogs, some art blogs have taken on 'web 2.0' social networking features. Art blogs that adopt this sort of change can develop to become a source of information on art events, a way to share information and images, or virtual meeting ground.

The Canadian political blogosphere includes political commentary using any social media technology. Its culture differs from that of Europe or the US. The term 'blogosphere' was first formed colloquially in 1999, and has since evolved to mean "the cultural or intellectual environment in which blogs are written and read."

Blogging is increasingly used in many countries around the globe, including those with oppressive and authoritarian regimes. In many Arab countries with oppressive and authoritarian regimes, where the government conventionally has controlled print and broadcast media, blogs and other forms of new media provide a new public sphere where citizens can obtain information they are interested in and exchange their personal opinion concerning several topics, including politics, economics, culture, love, life and religion.

Malini Agarwal, also known as MissMalini, is an Indian digital influencer, TV host, entrepreneur, and author. She began her career as a radio jockey at Radio One in Mumbai, India, and later served as the head of digital content for Channel [v] India. In 2008, she established her blog, MissMalini.com, where she covers topics related to Bollywood, Indian television, fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. Aside from radio and her blog, she has also guest anchored several television shows, including CNN-IBN's Tech Toyz and UTV Bindass' Style Police, as well as several seasons of her own show, MissMalini's World on TLC, Inside Access with MissMalini on Vh1 Kya Scene Hai on Zoom, Feet Up With the Stars on Voot.

A personal styleblogger is an individual who manages an online platform that covers several aspects of fashion. These blogs, often produced independently, post pictures of the blogger to show their outfits and lifestyle to a number of followers. They influence consumer taste and preferences, often functioning as an intermediary between businesses and consumer. From a company perspective, the blogger is perceived as a promotional tool. From the consumer side, high-reputation bloggers are considered opinion leaders. This often results in material benefits, rewards, branded fashion clothing and paid sponsorship, as well as status in the field of fashion.

References

  1. ↑ "Must See http://". The BradLands. 1999-09-10. Archived from the original on 2011-08-08. Retrieved 2011-12-26.
  2. ↑ Axelrod, Laura (January 4, 2010). "Brad L. Graham, coined the term 'blogosphere,' dies at 41". The Birmingham News. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
  3. ↑ DailyPundit.com (via Internet Archive)
  4. ↑ "Logos." PBS.org. https://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/theogloss/logos-body.html
  5. ↑ "Sphere." English for Students. http://www.english-for-students.com/sphere.html
  6. ↑ Blogosphere in Web Archive at the Wayback Machine (archived July 13, 2011) Blogosphere: The new political arena, Michael Keren, 2006.
  7. ↑ Nitin Agarwal, Huan Liu, Lei Tang, and Philip Yu. "Identifying Influential Bloggers in a Community", First International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM08), February 11–12, Stanford, California.
  8. ↑ Nitin Agarwal, Huan Liu, John Salerno, and Philip Yu. "Searching for 'Familiar Strangers' on Blogosphere: Problems and Challenges", NSF Symposium on Next-Generation Data Mining and Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation. October 10–12, Baltimore, MD.
  9. ↑ Nitin Agarwal, Huan Liu, Sudheendra Murthy, Arunabha Sen, and Xufei Wang. "A Social Identity Approach to Identify Familiar Strangers in a Social Network", 3rd Int'l AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, May 17–20, 2009, San Jose, California.
  10. ↑ "All About The Blogosphere". Into The Blogosphere.
  11. 1 2 Joust, K. & Hipolit, M. (2006). Blog explosion. CQ Researcher, 16(22), 505-528.
  12. ↑ Saad, L. (2006). Blog Readership Bogged Down. Gallup. http://www.gallup.com/poll/21397/blog-readership-bogged-down.aspx.
  13. ↑ "BlogPulse Stats". BlogPulse. Nielsen Holdings. Archived from the original on 2011-01-12. Retrieved 2023-05-27.
  14. 1 2 3 Sobel, J. (2010). State of the blogosphere.Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/ On web archive at the Wayback Machine (archived January 6, 2012)
  15. ↑ Sussman, M. (2009). State of the blogosphere.Retrieved October 3, 2011, from "Archive link". Archived from the original on 2012-01-01. Retrieved 2011-10-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) "Day 4: Blogging Revenues, Brands and Blogs: SOTB 2009 - Technorati Blogging". Archived from the original on 2011-10-27. Retrieved 2011-10-04.
  16. ↑ Investigating the Impact of the Blogosphere: Using PageRank to Determine the Distribution of Attention Archived November 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , Kirchhoff, Bruns & Nicolai, 2007.
  17. 1 2 Ornes, S. (2007). Welcome to the blogosphere. DISCOVER Magazine. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://discovermagazine.com/2007/may/map-welcome-to-the-blogosphere
  18. ↑ Aldred, Jessica (2008-03-09). "The world's 50 most powerful blogs". London: Observer. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  19. ↑ The designation itself is mentioned in, among others, Gray, Tyler (2006-09-28). "Pop goes Perez: How a pudgy Miami poseur became gossip's new queen". Radar Online. Retrieved 2007-02-1
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