Media and Society assigment
LDE299
Blogging.docxBlogging
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INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT
According to the non-profit, non-partisan Pew Internet & American Life Project (PIP), 32 million Americans read blogs during the mid-2000s. Short for Web log, a blog is a one-to-many, Web-based form of communication. It is similar in many respects to a personal Web site, online journal, or diary that readers can respond to, and often includes links to other places on the World Wide Web. Effectively bringing together people that otherwise would be separated by the boundaries of politics, geography, and time, blogs are 24/7 soapboxes that people use to express their opinions, complaints, and musings on any conceivable topic—in chronological order.
Blogs have been called everything from personal broadcasting systems to glorified electronic dictionaries. As Francine Fialkoff wrote in the April 1, 2005 issue of Library Journal, "While blogs can disseminate news from many sources, they also can generate news and be news, too. They reflect tremendous energy, often creating niches for and drawing together likeminded readers. As with any written words, however, in their immediacy, blogs can make mistakes."
ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE
In January 2005, Lee Rainie, director of the non-profit, non-partisan Pew Internet & American Life Project (PIP), issued a memo outlining the scope of blogging during the mid-2000s. According to the memo, which provided the findings of two PIP surveys conducted in November 2004, blog readership increased 58 percent in 2004. Among Internet users, 27 percent indicated they were blog readers, up from 17 percent in February 2004. This placed the number of American blog readers at 32 million. In addition, 7 percent of U.S. adult Internet users (8 million people) have created a blog or Web-based diary. Additionally, 12 percent (14 million people) have posted comments or other material on another person's blog.
The Blogosphere
The online collective of blogs is commonly known as the blogosphere. This virtual space has been referred to as a modern-day Wild West, where authenticity and transparency are highly prized. The blogosphere even has its own unique terminology. For example, bloggers are people who post information to blogs, while blogging is the actual act of creating or posting to a blog. By contrast, blog readers are people who read blogs but do not usually post information to them.
The aforementioned Pew Internet & American Life Project memo provided interesting information about bloggers, as well as blog readers. According to the memo, Pew began surveying Internet users about blog creation in 2002. While a mere 3 percent of users had created blogs in June of 2002, this number increased to 5 percent in early 2004 and 7 percent in late 2004, marking what some believe to be the beginning of a strong growth trend. Pew indicated that 57 percent of bloggers are male, and 48 percent are under age 30. Fully 70 percent have broadband Internet connections, and 82 percent are considered veteran Internet users who have been on line for six years or more. In addition, 39 percent have college degrees and 42 percent have household incomes of more than $50,000.
Pew revealed that while blog readers, as a group, are more "mainstream" than bloggers, there are similarities between them. For example, blog readers tend to be males, young, well educated, and experienced Internet users. In 2004 Pew indicated that blog readership was increasing at an above average rate among dialup users, people aged 30 to 49, minorities, and women.
There are other key terms within the blogosphere. As writer Del Jones explained in the May 9, 2005 issue of USA Today, flaming is when bloggers "post indelicate responses and react with incivility." In their joint 2005 report, Trust "MEdia" How Real People are Finally Being Heard, public relations firm Edelman and business intelligence solutions provider Intelliseek defined several other blogging terms. Astroturfing refers to phony grassroots efforts by agenda-driven organizations that pay people (unknown to others) to say positive things about their cause or organization. A burst or bursty happens when, after being mentioned in a blog, a person, phrase, or issue is suddenly catapulted into awareness for a brief moment. Finally, comment spam refers to efforts by spammers to weave the same types of unsolicited material that is circulated via e-mail into blogs.
Within the blogosphere, blogs exist within every conceivable category and niche. Because of their broad range, compiling an exhaustive list of blog types is virtually impossible. Generally speaking, blogs can be grouped within several broad categories. In their 2005 report, Edelman and Intelliseek suggested a taxonomy with the following categories: general consumer blogs; focused consumer blogs; credentialed news blogs; A-list, high-traffic blogs; corporate or B2B professional blogs; and marketer-sponsored blogs.
One general note is that blogs can either be authored by one individual or by a group. The latter, called groupblogs, involve co-authors. Closely related to blogs are Wikis, which differ from blogs in that anyone (not just the author or authors) is allowed to edit content that has been posted.
General consumer blogs are written by common, everyday people and cover the good and bad aspects of every conceivable lifestyle and consumer issue. These types of blogs tend to be highly personal, and many observers have criticized them for being of little interest to anyone but the author and those within his or her immediate family or social circles.
As their name suggests, focused consumer blogs also are written by everyday people, but tend to zero in on a particular interest area. The sheer scope of these focused blogs is enormous. For example, the eatonweb portal lists 154 categories. Beyond common categories like business, relationships, religion, science, and sports, some of the more interesting categories were archaeology, archivists, caravanning, fun, gadgets, handwriting analysis, healing, homeland security, linguistics, live role play, macrobiotics, peace, performance art, psychiatry, surveillance, uprooted, weird/alternative, and zookeeping.
The eatonweb portal allows people to search for blogs in 47 different languages, including Arabic, Cambodian, Esperanto, Farsi, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Latvian, Malay, Samoan, Slovak, Taglish, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Users also can search for blogs geographically by 166 different countries. These ranged from Azerbaijan, Bahrain, East Timor, and Ecuador to the Marshall Islands, Qatar, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
One hot topic of discussion during the mid-2000s was the future of traditional journalism and news media in the wake of the blogging revolution. This phenomenon is discussed in detail in the Current Conditions section of this essay. However, traditional media players have attempted to find a place in the blogosphere through credentialed news blogs, in which newspaper and magazine columnists use blogs as a publishing medium. Examples of traditional media heavyweights that have experimented with blogging include the New York Times and the Washington Post. During the mid-2000s, one criticism of this approach was that most credentialed blogs were still subject to evaluation by a publication's editorial department. Some critics argued that this removed or reduced the element of authenticity found in blogs created by independent bloggers.
A-List, high-traffic blogs, according to the Edelman/Intelliseek report, are produced by bloggers who have a meaningful audience but no traditional media credentials. One example of an A-list blog is the political blog Instapundit. Written by Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, Instapundit claims to have more than 100,000 readers each day, rivaling or exceeding the readership of many newspaper columns.
Corporate or B2B professional blogs are written by business professionals and may be intended for a company's internal use or for outside industry professionals and customers. One example of a leading company that uses both types of blogs is IBM. In addition to producing a number of blogs for the public, in 2005 IBM was piloting an internal blog system called BlogCentral. The system allowed IBM employees to keep personal blogs, and as of March 2005 included some 3,000 active blogs and 8,000 registered users.
In the March 28, 2005 issue of Info World, IBM researcher Dan Gruen explained, "Because BlogCentral is searchable and because you can easily see the latest postings across BlogCentral as a whole, it can help you discover colleagues throughout the company with interests similar to your own. We've seen people using blogs to diary their daily experiences using a new technology or building a new kind of system, monitored by others as a sort of real-time virtual apprenticeship, which lets them observe events as they unfold and see the issues that arise and how they are addressed."
While many companies allow their employees to publish public blogs, observers have noted that Fortune 1,000 chairmen and CEOs have not adopted the practice. Some CEOs have cited legal reasons for not writing blogs. For example, some worry that their comments could be interpreted as forward-looking statements by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or that their remarks could endanger the company in some other way. However, a number of high-ranking executives have written blogs, including General Motors Vice Chairman of Product Development Bob Lutz; Sun Microsystems Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Schwartz; and Boeing Commercial Airplanes Vice President Randy Beseler.
Finally, marketer-sponsored blogs, also known as adverblogs, are used for purposes of marketing or advertising. These may be developed by a company or by its marketing/PR agency. During the mid-2000s, marketing and PR agencies were adding blog services to their service portfolios, and in some cases were opening specialty practices to help companies take advantage of this emerging media niche. While Nike's Art of Speed is one example of a successful adverblog, many other attempts to use this approach have failed to resonate with consumers.
On a related note, companies often place ads on other blogs via online agencies such as BlogAds or Google Ads, which allow them to buy ads on all blogs within a certain category. While click-through rates on each individual blog may be small, their collective power is significant. The key, according to industry observers, is that marketers are able to effectively target messages to high-quality prospects that may be harder to reach through other channels. Random House, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting, Penguin Books, and The Wall Street Journal are a few examples of companies that have advertised on blogs.
During the mid-2000s some analysts argued that businesses could not afford to ignore blogs as an advertising channel because the potential for advertising revenue was too great. However, others were skeptical about the power of blogs to generate significant money for advertisers. Instead, they indicated that blogs held more power as public relations tools, which companies could use when launching new products or services, or as a means of obtaining consulting work.
Using blogs to track and manage corporate and brand reputations was one key strategy that some companies, including Volkswagen, were employing during the mid-2000s. Companies quickly recognized the wealth of honest feedback that existed within blogs regarding products, brands, and organizations. In order to harvest this valuable market intelligence and employ effective brand and reputation management strategies, marketers turned to firms like Intelliseek, Factiva, Techdirt, and BlogPulse. In addition to serving as a feedback mechanism, blogs also are a channel companies can use to address rumors and concerns being circulated by customers.
BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT
According to a March 14, 2005 article by Daniel Conover, which appeared in The Post and Courier, the origin of blogs can be traced back to the mid-1990s when the World Wide Web first became available to the public. "Web logs arose from a combination of personal Web page technologies and popular 'digital community' applications such as Usenets and comment threads," he explained. "While now-defunct sites such as GeoCities offered free Web pages to noncommercial users in the mid-1990s, Web developers saw a market for an easier-to-use personal Web site, something designed for immediate communication."
One of the blogging world's pioneers is software millionaire Dave Winer, who started blogging in 1996 and created The Scripting News Web log on April 1 of the following year. There seems to be disagreement concerning who actually coined the term blog. According to several sources, Internet writer Jorn Barger coined the term Web log in late 1997. However, other sources give credit to blogger Andrew Sullivan, who described blogging as "democratic journalism" in a 2002 Wired article, according to the Washington Times.
By 1999 several hundred Web logs had been created, and users simply began referring to the sites as blogs. The first blogging creation software tools and hosting services came onto the scene that year, including Xanga, LiveJournal, and BlogSpot. These three services remained the leading blog services during the mid-2000s, with each claiming to have between 6.6 million and 8.2 million accounts. Blogger, a service that eventually was acquired by search engine heavyweight Google, also was established in 1999 and has been credited as a catalyst for blogging's popularity because it allowed users with no knowledge of computer programming language to post their commentary online.
Blogs continued to grow steadily during the early 2000s, and by mid-2001 there were an estimated 100,000 in existence. World events led to a subsequent explosion in blog growth, including the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Bloggers also began to have an impact on the political realm. For example, they drew attention to commentary by former Senator Trent Lott in 2002 that preceded his resignation as Senate Majority Leader. Leading political blogs received an estimated 75,000 daily hits by the end of 2003. That year, the Oxford English Dictionary added blog-related terms.
Blogging exploded in popularity in 2004, largely because of the U.S. presidential race. Bloggers proved they were an important force when they successfully competed with mainstream media in covering major political developments. Celebrities like Barbara Streisand began writing blogs, and so-called "blog stars" made television appearances.
CURRENT CONDITIONS
One hot topic of discussion during the mid-2000s was the future of traditional journalism and news media in the wake of the blogging revolution. In a nutshell, the traditional media establishment found itself competing with common people who shared uncensored news as it happened from points throughout the world. This phenomenon has been called distributed journalism, citizen journalism, as well as reality media, grass-roots media, and new media. In addition to competing with so-called distributed journalism, traditional media coverage itself has been subject to discussion and criticism among bloggers, adding a new element to the media world and increasing levels of accountability.
The relationship of blogging to traditional media coverage can be illustrated by several key examples. For example, the tsunami that wreaked havoc on Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004 was documented by bloggers, who, in addition to providing photos, video, and news of the disaster, also shared casualty and missing person lists and provided links to government agencies and disaster/relief organizations. During the 2004 presidential race, several political bloggers were given highly prized press credentials and allowed to report from the Republican and Democratic national conventions along with traditional media heavyweights. In addition, Howard Dean leveraged his Blog For America site as a successful fund-raising and volunteer recruitment tool.
"Rather-Gate," also referred to as "Memogate," is another example of the impact that bloggers have on traditional media. When CBS News' Dan Rather claimed to have memos proving President George W. Bush compromised the terms of his military service during the Vietnam War, bloggers proved the documents were forged. Following the controversial September 8, 2004 Sixty Minutes II story, this led to the termination of several CBS staff members, an apology from Rather, and an internal review at CBS.
Blogs also were playing a unique role in America's military presence in Iraq. Unlike any other war in history, Web-connected soldiers were documenting and sharing stories, opinions, photos, and more with the world in near real time through military blogs. Also called milblogs, there were approximately 50 military blogs in mid-2004, according to the May 12, 2005 issue of USA Today. By mid-2005 this number had increased to 200, and observers anticipated that some 1,000 milblogs would be in existence by the year's end. One factor behind the growth of milblogs is concern among soldiers that traditional media do not tell the entire story of what is happening; milblogs give soldiers the power to share good news with the world.
Most soldier-authored milblogs are written anonymously, either on personal laptops or at Internet cafes the military has established at larger bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some soldiers have been reprimanded or demoted for potentially jeopardizing operational security, and some commanders have ordered soldiers to have their blogs reviewed before posting, but this is not believed to be a widespread problem. While milblogs have historical value, some historians have noted that their content is likely to be less personal and revealing than what would be included in letters home or regular journals.
Heading into the second half of the 2000s, the blogosphere was poised to experience strong growth. This was evident by the number of people who were still unaware of its existence. For example, the aforementioned Pew Internet & American Life Project memo indicated that blogs were still relatively unknown during the mid-2000s. In the memo, Pew explained that 62 percent of all Internet users surveyed did not understand what the term "blog" means.
INDUSTRY LEADERS
By the mid-2000s many leading technology firms had entered the blogosphere. For example, Microsoft's MSN Spaces allows people to create customizable blogs that users can post to via a regular computer or from a mobile device. Search engines such as Google also have a stake in the game. In February of 2003, Google purchased San Francisco-based Pyra Labs, an early developer of blogging technology that was founded by three friends in 1999. The company's Blogger service was acquired as part of the deal, and became part of Google's growing lineup of user options. Despite the role these companies play, other firms such as Six Apart Ltd. and Intelliseek are more exclusively focused on the blogosphere.
Six Apart Ltd.
Established in 2002 by Ben Trott and Mena G. Trott, Six Apart Ltd. is a true blogging pioneer. The company is a leading blog software and services provider. Its offerings include the massive LiveJournal online community, which is focused on personal journals, as well as the easy-to-use TypePad personal Web logging service. In addition, its Movable Type publishing platform, which was introduced in 2001, is used at the enterprise level by businesses. One interesting technology that Six Apart offered was TypeKey, which it described as "a free, open, comment registration system giving weblog authors greater control for managing posted comments and preventing comment spam. TypeKey helps ensure that people who comment on a site have a verified identity, keeping weblog content and conversations on track." In mid-2005 Six Apart was headed by Chairman and CEO Barak Berkowitz. Founder Mena Trott served as president, while her husband Ben Trott served as chief technology officer. The privately held company had 75 employees at its offices in San Francisco, Portland, Tokyo, and Paris.
Intelliseek
Founded in May 1997 by Executive Chairman Mahendra Vora and Chief Technology Officer Sundar Kadayam, Cincinnati, Ohio-based Intelliseek "creates technologies and platforms that turn word-of-mouth behavior and online consumer-generated media into timely market research for brands, companies, marketers, researchers, and businesses." Since its establishment, Intelliseek has grown through new technology developments, which have led to offerings such as its Enterprise Discovery Suite, as well as BrandPulse and BrandPulse Direct. In mid-2004 the company introduced its free BlogPulse Web site, which is used to track, search, and analyze millions of blog postings every day. Acquisitions also have played a role in Intelliseek's growth. One example is the company's October 2001 merger with PlanetFeedback.com, which allowed it to offer consumer intelligence and feedback tools to brand managers and corporate customers. Intelliseek made Inc. magazine's list of the 500 fastest-growing U.S. private firms in October of 2004. At the same time, Mike Nazzaro, who had been serving as Intelliseek's president and chief operating officer, was named CEO.
RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
One emerging distribution technology in the blogosphere is Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Blog readers use software known as newsreaders, feed readers, or aggregators that combine content feeds from multiple blogs (to which readers subscribe) onto one Web page. This allows blogs to syndicate their content, and eliminates the need for readers to visit the individual blogs they are interested in. Most newsreader applications, including NewsGator and loglines, are available for free and will run inside of a Web browser window.
In its January 28, 2005 issue, The Financial Times noted, "Today's simple readers still perform only rudimentary tasks—for instance, the software might highlight all the new information that has been posted to a site since it was last checked. Tomorrow's more sophisticated software may be able to draw on user preferences to find and filter information from the web. For online publishers, this is already becoming of more than academic interest."
In addition to aggregating news and blog feeds, aggregators are beginning to be used as brand management tools, in that some companies are using them to scan blogs for references to their companies, brands, or products.
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project (PIP), only five percent of Internet users used RSS aggregators or XML readers in early 2005. These experienced Internet users were considered early adopters of a technology that many expected to grow.
During the mid-2000s, the majority of blogs were text-heavy. However, they were quickly becoming multimedia in nature as bloggers posted photos, audio clips, and video clips to their blogs. The emergence of podcasting, in which people download content to portable media players on a subscription basis, led to the emergence of audio blogs. In a similar vein, video blogs or "vlogs" were another emerging blog form in the mid-2000s, although opinions of observers were mixed on their growth potential.
FURTHER READING
Bajak, Frank, and Darrell Proctor. "Blog of War Changing Media Establishment." Rocky Mountain News, 28 March 2005.
Bazeley, Michael. "Audioblog.com Lets Bloggers Include Sound, Video Files." San Jose Mercury News, 9 February 2005.
"Blog Blather: Blasting Off into the Blogosphere." PR News, 13 April 2005.
"Blog Readership Shoots Up 58% in 2004. 6 Million Americans Get News and Information Fed to Them Through RSS Aggregators but 62% of Online Americans Do Not Know What a Blog Is." Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, January 2005. Available from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_blogging_data.pdf .
"Bloggers Provide Vital Component to Mainstream Media." Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, 22 February 2005.
Conover, Daniel. "Blogging Comes of Age." The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), 14 March 2005.
"Corporate Overview." San Francisco: Six Apart Ltd. 23 May 2005. Available from http://www.sixapart.com.
Delio, Michelle. "The Enterprise Blogosphere." Info World, 28 March 2005.
Fialkoff, Francine. "The Power of Blogs." Library Journal, 1 April 2005.
Foremski, Tom. "Blogging Technology Opens Doors for Enterprises." The Financial Times, 23 February 2005.
"Intelliseek History." Cincinnati, OH: Intelliseek Inc. 22 May 2005. Available from http://www.intelliseek.com/history.asp .
Jesdanun, Anick. "Are Your Workers Blogging about the Company? Firings Prompt Some Employers to Redefine Appropriate Online Behavior. Meanwhile, Others See Value in Engaging Potential Customers Through Personal Web Journals." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 13 March 2005.
Jones, Del. "CEOs Refuse to Get Tangled Up in Messy Blogs." USA Today, 9 May 2005. Available from http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-05-09-blog-cover_x.htm .
Memmott, Mark. "Historians Hope to Preserve Candid Glimpses of War." USA Today, 12 May 2005.
——. "'Milbloggers' are Typing their Place in History." USA Today, 12 May 2005.
Othman, Kamal A. "Blogging Activities on the Rise." Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, 17 January 2005.
Rigby, Rhymer. "Niche Appeal of the Blogging Business." The Financial Times, 4 January 2005.
Schacter, Ken. "Blogs Hold Opportunity for Business." St. Charles County Business Record (MO), 3 January 2005.
"The Blogging Geyser: Blogs Blast from 31.6 Million to Reach 53.4 Million by Year End." Business Wire, 12 April 2005.
"The Story of Blogger in 273 Words." Mountain View, CA: Google Inc. 23 May 2004. Available from http://www.blogger.com/about .
Trust "MEdia" How Real People are Finally Being Heard. Cincinnati, OH: Intelliseek Inc. and Edelman, Spring 2005. Available from http://www.edelman.com/image/insights/content/ISwp_TrustMEdia_FINAL.pdf .
Waters, Richard. "Simple Steps to a Revolution in Information." The Financial Times, 28 January 2005.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
