New forms of media publishing

The new media is taking over the cyber world and replacing the old media ecosystem.  Audiences are no longer just passive receiver, they are no longer just consuming but also producing. Internet users are now able to interact and responds to contents online such as youtube.com, facebook.com, twitter and so on. This new media ecosystem act as a new platform to connect to other users, and provide a way to internet users to publishing. This leads to an example of internet as an interactive media as reviews are usually provided by consumers themselves. (Oyanagi.M 2010)

Part of our difficulty is that we lack a discourse that is appropriate to what is happening. Besides just being discovered, consumers are practically ‘journalist’ these days. In Malaysia, the mainstream media is no longer a trustworthy news source, thus leads to emergence of new websites such as Twitter. 64% of blogger and 36% of reporters is said to use twitter as a research tool for stories. (Rao.L 2010)

The new media ecosystem is a dynamic, complementary communication channel. It create connections and develop influence to build a genuine community.  Twitter gives the snippets while blogging gives in--depth information. That, why they use twitter to promote blogs (Zahiid.S.J 2010). Youtube is a useful tool for showcasing talent online for others to see. For example, Justin Bieber was discovered when his mother started posing videos of him at youtube (O’neill.M 2010).Both of these new medias have changed the roles of communication in a revolutionary way.

 Catone, J 2008, Twitter as a tool for social change, viewed 30th September 2010, <http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/10/21/twitter-as-a-tool-for-social-change/>

Naughton, J 2006, ‘Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem’, viewed 30th September 2010, <http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html>

Neville Hobson , 2005, The new media ecosystem,  viewed on 30th September 2010, <http://www.nevillehobson.com/pubfiles/downloads/051020_NewMedia_FEIEA.pdf>

O’neill.M 2010, Is youtube the new American idol? ,viewed on 30th September 2010,<http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/04/is-youtube-the-new-american-idol/ >.

Oyanagi.M 2010, Vol.22 – What Distinguishes Internet/Web From Traditional Media? , viewed on 30th September 2010,<http://megoyanagi.thoseinmedia.com/2010/02/21/vol-22-%E2%80%93-what-distinguishes-internetweb-from-traditional-media/ >.

Rao.L 2010, Study:52 percent of bloggers consider themselves journalist, viewed on 30th September 20100,<http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/01/study-52-percent-of-bloggers-consider-themselves-journalists/ >.

Zahiid.S.J 2010, Blogging is so yesterday, politicians turn to twitter, The Malaysian insider, viewed on 30th September 2010,<http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/52749-blogging-is-so-yesterday-politicians-turn-to-twitter >.

Blogging community

Blogging community is a group of people share same interest interact with each other on the latest blog in some blogs. Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers, including BlogCatalog. Interest-specific blogging platforms are also available, they have their own practices and behaviors to helps create norms (Wei. C, 2004). 

Many of us interested in the application of online community to learning and work, ‘grew up’ in this era of bounded communities. There is a guide to create a blog community is to start by immersing in the community around. The next is to learn  which tools are important (Denise 2009). This is to allow you to get familiar with the services and the opportunities that make you more easier when searching information through blog. Tagging is also a helps bring others into the loop, this categorize people onto a certain group of same interest. Tags are really nothing more than keywords used to describe a piece of data (Sue, 2010). 

There are three types of blogging community:

Blog Based Communities

One blog centrie community

First form of blog based of community to emerge. The one blog is owned by one owner but more than one blogger writing in a blog. eg: http://www.downes.ca/ . Stephen Downes

Central Connecting Topic Community

The Central Connecting Topic Centric blog community is a network formation. This form is a community that arises between blogs linked by a common passion or topic. It basically begins when there is a shared interest between bloggers. Eg: http://globalvoicesonline.org/

Boundaried Communities

They are required to register and ‘join’ the community and being offer a chance to create a blog. Eg:http://www.shareyourstory.org/

Other samples of blogging community:

Source: Livejournal.com

Personally I am familiar with Twitter.com which readers can subscribe and be notified when there is an update with the new posts. Twitter is also another form of blogging. Besides, it is increasingly used. It is simple and easy user interface to build a blogging community. 

Denise 2009, How do you build community?, viewed on 29 September 2010, <http://www.blogher.com/how-do-you-build-community >.

Sue Chastain, 2010, What is tagging, viewed on 29 September 2010, <http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/a/tagging.htm>

Wei. C 2004, Formation of Norms in a Blog Community,viewed on 29 September 2010, <http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/formation_of_norms.html >.

White. N 2006, Blogs and community-launching a new paradigm for online community, going communal, edition 11, viewed on 29 September 2010, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

Classification of blogs.

People blog for different reasons, and also create different types of blogs depend on their interest and target audience (Chris, 2010). 

Classification of blog is essential so that bloggers have a clear vision to refer to, Chris, 2010, mentioned in his blog by tags are most certainly needed and helpful, at least is easy discovery and consumption of materials of interest.

According to Simons (2008), he classified blogs into 9 different categories as follows;

• Pamphleteering blogs, eg: Andrew Norton's blog
• Digest blogs, eg:  FairGoFairfax
• Advocacy blogs, eg: Telstra's exercise in corporate spin
• Popular Mechanics blogs, eg:  Strobist
• Exhibition blogs, eg: AroundtheWorldIn20Quilts
• Gatewatcher blogs, eg: Beat Blogging
• Diary 
• Advertisement
• News blogs, eg: Mayne Report

Subject Matters:

• politics
• fashion
• history
• law

Media types:

-vlog - is short video blog, is a term use to describe a blog that contains video clips. Examples of vlog areyoutube.com.

-linklog - is a blog that consist of other blogs' URL and you can link to those blogs. Example of a linklog is Linkwalla.

-sketchlog - is a blog that consists of images, especially sketches and other drawings. Example of a sketchlog is Karin Rindevall’s sketch log. 

-tumblelog - is a short and concise blog that provides little or sometimes no commentary at all. -photolog - is a blog that contains photos, where the photos is the primary element not the text. 

-splog - is short for spam blog.

Device: 

-moblog - is short for mobile blogging. it is a blog where Mobile Phones acts as another device to publish blog entries. Example of a moblog is flickr.

State of Publishers:

-Corporate blogs, e.g. Redfin Corporate Blog

-Business blog, eg: GuruFocus.com

When comes to the combinations of blog styles, there is a need to identify the topics, style and format. In my opinion, Simons classification compare to my findings of classification is more terminology words to name the type of blog. My findings is more simple and straight forward. But the classification did not include interactive blog to produce a discussion and share same thoughts but they have forum.

Chris Heuer, 2010, Simple blog classification system, viewed on 29/9/2010, retrieved from <http://www.chrisheuer.com/2005/07/14/simple-blog-classification-system-please-no-acronyms/>

Simons, M 2008, Towards a taxonomy of blogs, Australian Policy Online, viewed 28 September 2010, from <http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0>

Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits of blogging to the community

Blog has being a current phenomenon and becoming a major issue due to it's increasing. While discussing the issue, McLean (2009), states that bloggers are blogging more than ever, and the State of the Blogosphere is strong.

Graph above shows that the size of blogosphere is averagely doubling every month ever since 2003-2006.(Sifry. D 2006)

Bloggers blog according their self self-expression and sharing expertise,  Sussman (2009). For example, in Europe and Asia, there have been plenty of blogs dealing with business, technology and politics. As we can see, there are different trend that influence the bloggers write actively about their topics. In an online survey on the blogosphere in Malaysia, Blogging Malaysia: A Windows Live Report, (Press Microsoft Malaysia 2006), ‘an overwhelming majority (81%)’ of Malaysian bloggers are primarily blogging for their ‘friends or family’.

There are several various types of blogs: 

-Personal blogs, eg.kennysia.com

-Collaborative blogs

-Corporate blogs

-Topical blogs

-Spam blogs

-Podcasts and videocasts

-Photologs 

Souce: Blogging-The Phenomenon

Other countries such as Iran and US mostly blog about political, but Malaysia, 28% of the Malaysian Top 50 Bloggers write about personal stuff (Gaman, 2007). In Malaysia, because the printing media is controlled by government, that's why blog become a way to search of in-depth-information and free speech. Besides, emergence of Malaysia many political blogs, we are well educated and get to hear  news  Opposition since mainstream media does not write deeply.  Blogosphere benefits different country differently. 

The negative:
■ 2% - 8% of new blogs per day are
fake or spam blogs
■ 5.8% of posts per day (c. 50,000) are from
fake or spam blogs

Blogging-The Phenomenon, Types of blogs, viewed 29 September 2010, <http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01130/typesofblogs_othermedia.html>

Gaman 2007, 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia, Sabahan.com, viewed 29 September 2010, from <http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/>

MacLean, J 2009, State of the Blogosphere 2009 Introduction, Technorati, viewed 29 September 2010, from <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/>

Neville Hobson , 2005, The new media ecosystem,  viewed on 29th September 2010, <http://www.nevillehobson.com/pubfiles/downloads/051020_NewMedia_FEIEA.pdf>

Press Microsoft Malaysia 2006, Women rule in Malaysian blogosphere, viewed 29 September 2010, <http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2006/linkpage4337.mspx>.

Sifry. D 2006, State of the blogosphere,august 2006, viewed on 29 September 2010, <http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000436.html >.

The size of the blogosphere has doubled every five months over the last year and a half, according to blog analysis firm Technorati.