Blogs: Current Phenomenon and Benefits to Society

Caption: Bloggers: Yesterday, Today and Tommorow (emarketer.com)

The days of waiting anxiously for the 8p.m news are over; today with just a click of the mouse, no matter when and where (provided there is Internet access) we have full access to and overwhelming amount information at the rapid speed. As the Centre for Social Media (2009) discusses, users are no longer mere passive audiences who wait for information to be served, instead they are hungry for news and actively participate in seeking and sharing content. Hence, we put aside our newspapers and welcome the blogging phenomena.

Statistics:
Technorati.com search engine indexed nearly nine million blogs around the world to date. (Thurman, 2008)

Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture (2009) indicate some 17,000 Malaysians operate blogs


Blogging Benefits

Politic:
A significant example would be the ‘Blogger turn Member of Parliament’ Jeff Ooi (http://www.jeffooi.com/) who pioneered e-community in 1999 (www.usj.com.my) and social-political blogging in Malaysia in 2003 and was democratically elected as the Member of Parliament for Jelutong, Penang in the recent 2008 General Elections. (Asian Correspondent, 2009)

Social:
Food Blogs are especially popular in Malaysia; as we serve up a diverse and multi cultural platter of delicacies that is not found anywhere else in the world. Promoting even dilapidated hawker stalls in corners of the cities, bloggers shed light on the best places for good food and ambience; their reviews are blatantly honest and gives readers a better insight on the restaurant as compared to the usually analysis from food critics.

Business:
The latest trend in raising quick money for youths are online fashion boutiques generated through blogs. Such sites post photos of outfits and detailed descriptions that allow users to decide and mail order their purchases. Shopping for clothes can now be done without spending hours walking through shopping malls. For example, this is a fashion blog generated by a fellow college student of mine: http://www.thekookything.blogspot.com/

Advertising:
Promoting events are now much cheaper and easier through blogs. Event managers can now advertise and update people about their events as well as reach out to the community for vendors and spectators; without paying exorbitant advertising rates. For instance: SOC Media Carnival by Taylors College Students blog

Caption: SOC Media Carnival.com


References:
Emarketer US Blogger Statistics 2008-2013 2009, PSFK.com, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://www.psfk.com/2009/10/emarketer-us-blogger-statistics-2008-2013.html>

Siaraf K 2009, Shaping a modern society, The Star Online, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/14/focus/5095356&sec=focus>

Centre for Social Media, 2009, Public Media 2.0: Dynamic Engaged Publics, (Audferheide, P, Director), Centre of Social Media, Washington, DC

Thurman, N 2008, ‘Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media’, New Media & Society, vol.10, no.1, pp.139-157

Asian Correspondent 2009, asiancorrespondent, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://asiancorrespondent.com/jeff-ooi-blog?profile=1>