The world has seen the emergence of a new style of
journalism, based on a 'raw feed' directly from the source.
And the common notion that surrounds the emergence of
serving 'raw feed' is that the journalists testing the new
waters are bound to wreak havoc on institutionalized media.
Also a popular notion is that Weblogs changes the nature of
'news' is in the migration of information from the personal
to the public.
Unquestionable, a blog is a medium that gives maximum
exposure to one's creativity. Just by hitting the 'post'
button and any personal writing becomes published writing.
Weblogging is driving a powerful new form of amateur
journalism. Today, millions of Net users - young people
especially - have taken up the role of columnist, reporter,
analyst and publisher while fashioning their own personal
broadcasting networks.
For the inexperienced, a blog consists of a running
commentary with pointers to other sites. Some, like
Librarian.net, Jim Romenesko's Media News or Steve Outing's
E-Media Tidbits, cover entire industries by providing quick
bursts of news with links to full stories.
Journalism and blogging together is becoming popular day by
day, more than any other form of blogging. Following
reasons are considered to extensively contribute to its
increasing popularity:
Creative Freedom
Part of a blog's allure is its unmediated quality. For a
journalist, there's no luxury like the luxury of publishing
unedited essay. The freedom in being able to present
yourself precisely as you want to is of enormous joy. It
does not matter how sloppily, irrationally or erratically
the content is written. The idea is to publish what you
think in the way you think.
Instantaneity
To a few writers, even writing for a weekly magazine may
seem like taking ages to print. With a Weblog, you hit the
send key and it is out.
Interactivity
It is a kick to receive feedback from people who have taken
interest to read and criticize your work. These are the
people you have never heard of; who stumble on your Weblog
and become a part of your thinking process.
Lack Of Marketing Constraints
When blogging it is not necessarily to tailor a work piece
for a certain readership or demographic. People interested
in a perspective finds its author - the blogger, instead of
the blogger finding a publication that reflects people's
interests.
Most of the time, the Weblogs tend to be less about actual
reporting and more about analysis and punditry and
opinionated commentary. The 9/11 terrorist attacks fuelled
the public's appetite for information, analysis and news,
if only to make sense of the tragedy. Bloggers rose to
prominence by feeding this desire.
Blogging has taken off in remarkable fashion; in a way,
it has made good where newsgroups have failed.
It has kept the promise that the Internet would provide
real community to Web surfers. Tuning in to some of the
newsgroups devoted to the terror attacks; one may sometimes
feel to be in the middle of a verbal war zone with so much
noise passing for informed discussion.
Weblogs run from single person operation to large teams and
communities, to business organizations spread throughout
the world. They offer a great way for readers to find
constantly updated news and information. It also allows
authors to connect to thousands of readers in a personal
way and add the honest, unedited voice of thousands to
increasingly commercializing Web.
The plethora of tools that helps managing the weblog
capitalizes on the ease of publishing posts to even greater
extent.
These are probably the reasons why they have been widely
adopted and maintained - for several years in some cases.
Gunnar Berglund has been a "internet- hardworker" for the last five years He publishes The meonit Gazette http://gazette.meonit.com and run http://www.meonit.com and http://www.visualxmleditor.com