Blogs

by

Donna Chu

• LAST MODIFIED: 22 November 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0310

Introduction

Blogs refers to websites that share certain common features. The basic unit of a blog is typically called a post or an entry. In the early days, each post was time-stamped, and later posts were presented before the earlier ones in the form of a weblog. The reverse chronological order is one of the defining features of blogs, especially when compared to other websites with more static content. Blogging is a cumulative process that can be initiated and maintained by individuals, commercial enterprises, or organizations. While content varies greatly across individual blogs, the design of blogs assumes that bloggers connect and interact with one another. Technological features, including links in the form of blogrolls, trackback, and threaded comments, encourage and facilitate community-building. A communitarian spirit is implied in the popular notion of blogosphere. It is commonly agreed that blogs first appeared in the mid-1990s. Peter Merholz is often credited as the person who coined the term blog by shortening weblog in 1999. Powered by web technologies and later blogging platforms, the number of blogs grew exponentially over a short period of time. Accurate estimates were lost, however, when tracking sites like Technocrati stopped indexing blogs in 2014. Statistics from major blog platforms suggest that millions of new blog posts continue to be posted daily. With the sheer number of blogs and their diverse use, blogging has generated much research interest regarding the types and content of blogs, as well as their uses and impact, particularly in their first decade of existence. Blogs constitute an important part of the participatory culture in the networked society. Individuals produce and share a massive amount of user-generated content through blogging. Contrary to practices in mass media, such as traditional journalism, blogging has changed how information is produced, gatekept, and distributed. Blogs are also outlets for different forms of personal expression. From creative works to social campaigns, blogs have become avenues where voices are heard, causes are seen, identities are formed, and communities are developed. In the mid-2000s, blogs became increasingly commonplace, as reflected by the ever-growing statistics and their diverse usage. It also coincided with a period when social networking sites were launched, leading to new practices later known as microblogging, in which short posts with quick updates become common and popular. In addition to maintaining their own blogs, Internet users could now share their thoughts in the form of newsfeed, vlogging, podcasting, and tweets in various social media platforms like X (previously Twitter) and the Chinese microblogging site Weibo. The essence of blogging, with practices including personal expressions and social connections, is still evident, yet not necessarily in the format of blogs as they first appeared. New terms like social media influencers and debates centering around digital labor and the nature of participation have instead generated new research agendas.

General Overviews

Blogs have been conceptualized as digital content enabled by online publishing tools since their very beginning. Blood 2002, a practical guide on how to create and maintain blogs, not only addresses the know-how of blogging but also provides an overview of the emergent phenomenon. Rettberg 2014 reviews different types of blogs that all share a serial nature. Content and genres apart, Herring, et al. 2005 notes that blogs, as a form, could be seen as a bridge between multimedia HTML documents and text-based computer-mediated communication. Computer programming knowledge was no longer a prerequisite in this type of content production. As elaborated by Schmidt 2007, blogging is enabled by a set of technologies setting specific rules, relations, and codes. boyd 2006 argues that blogs should be considered as a medium with a standard yet diverse set of practices. This approach recognizes the great varieties of content found across blogs, while emphasizing the unifying framework provided by the form. Siles 2012 reviews how the term blog was eventually adopted when there were other possible options. This account of the stabilization process recorded major events and concerns when a “paradigmatic technology” like blogging emerged. Blogging is part of a broad cultural shift in networked society, as explicated in Bruns 2008. Terms like prosumption, produsage, and user-generated content all drew attention to the blurred boundaries and changing roles of producers and consumers. A celebratory undertone was often implied in early discussions about the participatory web. Couldry 2008 discusses if the trend represented a wider democratization process. Dean 2010 conceptualizes the phenomenon as “communicative capitalism,” highlighting the depoliticizing trend of the participatory culture. Regarding community-building, the author prefers the term blogipelago because of the separateness and disconnection she observed in the blogosphere. The impact of the massive yet individualized participation through blogging has continued to generate debates about the development of new forms of citizenship, as outlined in Tremayne 2007.

• Blood, R. 2002. The weblog handbook: Practical advice on creating and maintaining your blog. Cambridge, MA: Perseus.

  One of the earliest publications about the emergent phenomenon, written by a pioneering blogger. In addition to guiding readers to create their own blogs step-by-step, it also covers various issues about blogging that remained relevant for years.

• boyd, danah. 2006. A blogger’s blog: Exploring the definition of a medium. Reconstruction 6.4.

  A thought-provoking piece about the definitions of blogs. It offers a succinct critique of metaphors commonly associated with blogs, and reviews how blogs were defined by different stakeholders. A useful discussion in clarifying similar yet different terms and concepts.

• Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, second life, and beyond: From production to produsage. New York: Peter Lang.

  A proposal to examine and evaluate a few emergent Internet phenomena through the lens of “produsage.” Elements and conditions of produsage are identified and their implications for production, collaboration, and exchange of various cultural forms are discussed. A good introduction to the major issues regarding networked participation.

• Couldry, N. 2008. Mediatization or mediation? Alternative understandings of the emergent space of digital storytelling. New Media & Society 10.3: 373–391.

  DOI: 10.1177/1461444808089414

  A careful and critical review of the two theoretical concepts of mediatization and mediation, and how each of them relate to new forms of digital storytelling. In particular, it suggests how mediation created conditions for conversational media. Considering the prominence of blogging and its emphasis on storytelling, the article draws attention to the potential of blogging in facilitating dialogues and hence contributing to democracy.

• Dean, J. 2010. Blog theory: Feedback and capture in the circuit of drive. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.

  A critical and engaging interrogation of the claims about participatory web. It develops a counter-thesis about democratic participation, showing how the development and consolidation of communicative capitalism was making such participation compulsory. Contrary to the communitarian spirit implied in the term blogosphere, the author finds that blogipelago, as in archipelago, is more accurate in describing the practices of blogging, which is not necessarily about “communication” but more about contributing to the growth of various platforms.

• Herring, S. C., L. A. Scheidt, S. Bonus, and E. Wright. 2005. Weblogs as a bridging genre. Information, Technology & People 18.2: 142–171.

  DOI: 10.1108/09593840510601513

  A content analysis of randomly selected blogs in 2003, which results in a good overview of the content and characteristics of the emergent genre. It reviews key stages in early development of blogs.

• Rettberg, J. W. 2014. Blogging. 2d ed. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.

  An introductory text about early history, pioneering bloggers, and major themes in blogging. First published in 2008, it defines blogs mainly in terms of their content, style, and topics.

• Schmidt, J. 2007. Blogging practices: An analytical framework. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12.4: 1409–1427.

  DOI: 10.1111/j.1083–6101.2007.00379.x

  A good analysis of blogging in technological terms, particularly regarding the rules, relations, and codes in blogging. It also discusses how blogging has impacted the information environment, identity development, and relationship management.

• Siles, I. 2012. The rise of blogging: Articulation as a dynamic of technological stabilization. New Media & Society 14.5: 781–797.

  DOI: 10.1177/1461444811425222

  A very good historical review of the development of blogging. It chronicles how the concept of blogging was first articulated and eventually got widely accepted. By considering the roles of different participants in the process, it eloquently shows the intricacies and dynamics when a new technology was interpreted and shaped in the adoption stage.

• Tremayne, M., ed. 2007. Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of Media. New York: Routledge.

  A collection of individual case studies related to blogging, politics, and journalism. Together they shed light on the changing meanings of citizenship, mainly in the American context.