What is a Blog?

What is a blog? It seems like everyone is asking this question nowadays. Before I sought to answer this question, I was sure to read The Draft Blogger’s Code of Conduct and the Pew Internet study Bloggers: A portrait of the Internet’s new storytellers. Then I went to my favorite place, The New York Times, which provided Blogs 101 written by Rich Meslin. Meslin recommends that to understand blogs, you must read them. Surprise surprise.  That happens to be the same thing everyone says (i.e. all of our class readings). Meslin suggests exploration of many of the same blogs we’ve heard about before- Technorati, Cyberjournalist.net, BoingBoing, Gawker and many more. Like a true blogger, Meslin does a good job of interacting with his readers. At the end of his post, he provides an embedded link, requesting that users send along their favorite blogs. Way to set an example on encouraging reader feedback!

Then, I looked at the recommended blogs, and more. There are a few things that I am sure of. A blog is a Web site arranged in chronological order, with the most recent posts first. Blogs have archives and most allow comments. A blog is written in a more personal, direct and relaxed style. Good blogs engage the reader and allow (and encourage) user commentary. Good blogs also have links, and lots of them, preferably embedded within the text. Good bloggers use these links to back up what they write. I also think blogs are better when they are specialized and focus on a particular topic or realm, such as technology. Good bloggers gain readership by establishing themselves as experts in a field and gaining credibility by supporting what they write.

Marc Fisher’s blog Raw Fisher lacks specificity and leans toward weird new. I don’t doubt the possible popularity of the blog based on the weird and entertaining things he blogs about. Fisher embeds links to the news he is referring to, establishing credibility. He also ends many of his posts with a direct question, such as “What do you think?” or an open ended statement. This is done to engage the reader and promote discussion. 

David Pogue, The Times technology blogger, provides little support for his statements, which often include facts and figures, in his technology blog. Pogue’s blog averages about one link per post, based on my observations. This surprised me because one would think The Times would be all about keeping its credibility high. Pogue does include photos and emoticons within his post, amusing, but not exactly credibility-enhancing. Maybe I’m just not into technology, but I’m sad to say I was unimpressed.

           Boing Boing looks like a blog. It does a great job engaging the reader, the first item on the top navigation bar is Suggest a Link and the fourth is Subscribe. At the end of each blog post there are three key options: Link (to the story discussed in the post), Discuss (read and write user comments) and Favorite This. Like most good blogs, Boing Boing references blog discussion by embedding links to other stories both on and off the Boing Boing site. To the right of the Web site there is a descending Recent Comments section, followed by Latest Gadgets and Latest Episodes.