In recent years, blogs have become one of the most important forms of expression on the internet. They have established a new way for people to provide information as well as promote ideas, interests, and even products and services. Blogs are appealing to both writers and readers; writers enjoy the freedom of expression that comes with blogging while readers are attracted to the fact that blogs seem to communicate to them on a more personal level. As such, many individuals and corporations have made use of blogs to make their presence felt on the internet.

Blogs are online commentaries that are composed by individuals, groups, or corporations to provide information or relate personal observations and thoughts for the purpose of self-expression or generating interest in a certain area of interest. The commentaries are usually topic-based and they can be composed with a variety of media. While most blogs are done in the written word, there are many that are composed with images, videos, sketches, or sound.

Brief History of Blogs

The word ‘blog’ is a shorter and more convenient form of ‘web log’, a term which was created by Jorn Barger in 1997. Back then, a web log referred to a personal journal that was published on the internet, and the writers of web logs were known as journalists and diarists. One of the first known bloggers was Justin Hall, a student from Swarthmore College who began writing blogs in the year 1994. Another early blogger was Dave Winer, whose Scripting News is presently one of the longest-running web logs on the internet.

In the year 1998, there were just a small number of websites that used web logs as a form of communication, but Jesse James Garnett, who was the editor of Infosift, decided that he was going to popularize web logs by setting up more web log sites. As a result, a community of web log enthusiasts began to form. In 1999, a person by the name of Peter Merholz said that a web log should be pronounced as ‘wee blog’, but somehow, the term was compacted to ‘blog’, and the writer of blogs was called a ‘blogger’. From then onwards, more and more people have participated in blogging, and more internet users have made use of blogs to get the information they need.

Types of Blogs

Originally, blogs were created by individuals who wanted to provide regular commentaries about themselves or certain events and issues. However, because of their effectiveness in communicating information and ideas, blogs were used by all types of people for all sorts of purposes, including promoting businesses and giving political comments. Most types of blogs on the internet can be classified under a number of categories, namely, personal blogs, question-and-answer blogs, corporate blogs, genre blogs, media-based blogs, and device-based blogs.

Since blogs started as personal journals that reveal the observations, thoughts, and emotional states of individuals based on their everyday lives, it can be said that personal blogs are the earliest form of blogs. To date, personal blogs are still the most common type of blogs on the internet. Those who write personal blogs have high regard for the things they write about, and they get a sense of satisfaction from blogging. As such, some of them take blogging as an opportunity to express themselves rather than a way to get the public’s attention. Such bloggers have made writing a form of artistic expression, and they do not really blog to communicate to the readers. In this sense, blogging is seen as a great avenue for emotional expression, and it provides a sense of relief for those who are experiencing stress in their daily lives. There is a form of personal blogs called microblogs in which bloggers relate very detailed observations of certain moments in their lives. It is not easy for personal bloggers to achieve fame, but those who have interesting ideas do have a good following.

Another popular form of blogs is corporate blogs. These blogs are dedicated to the promotion of business interests. Since blogging has been proven to be such an effective form of communication on the internet, both small businesses and big corporations have been using blogs to promote their products and services. Corporate blogs are effective for all types of business activities, including marketing, public relations, and branding, and they can benefit both internal and external corporate processes.

There are also blogs that are dedicated to a specified area of interest, and these are known as genre blogs. Such blogs are usually composed to get the public to participate in a topic-based discussion, so that more information and opinions can be generated. Some of the more common subjects of genre blogs are travel, home improvement, sports, music, politics, education, and fashion. Question-and-answer blogs are also mostly genre-based. In these blogs, bloggers will either ask or answer questions about a particular subject of interest.

Blogs are also categorized according to the media that are used to compose them. The more commonly used media-based blogs are video blogs, link blogs, sketch blogs, and photo blogs. There is also a type of blogs in this category called the tumble blogs, which involve mixed media and briefer posts. Blogs can also be composed with different types of devices. The most popular form of device-based blogs is the moblogs, which are composed on mobile phones or PDAs.

The Impact of Blogs on the Society

The increasing popularity of blogs has a significant influence on many aspects of the modern society. It has opened up an avenue for the general public to voice their opinions on a variety of current issues, ranging from politics and business to sports and fashion. Through blogs, people can actually say almost anything they want, and this brings the freedom of expression to a whole new level. Because of the great impact of blogs, bloggers are no longer seen as diarists or journalists who have little influence on the trends and currents events that are taking place around the world.

In the political arena, bloggers have managed to change the course of major political decisions as well as the public’s opinions about certain governmental activities, as evidenced in the ousting of Trent Lott from the position of U.S. Senate Majority Leader and the Rathergate scandal. In business, blogs are used to provide valuable information to consumers and promote the products and services of various companies. Good bloggers are highly-regarded in the world of the internet, and some of them are hired to help website owners gain more traffic for their sites.

The Legal Consequences of Blogs

Although the freedom of expression that comes with blogging has influenced many social and political events in a positive way, many bloggers have trespassed the boundaries of law because they failed to draw the line between what is legally acceptable and what is not. Throughout the years, many bloggers have been sued for defamation and liabilities.

A lecturer in a United Kingdom college had composed a blog to voice her dissatisfaction with a politician, who had left comments in the same blog earlier. In the blog, she referred to the politician as a ‘Nazi’, and he was so displeased with her remark that he searched out her real identity and sued her. He was given a total compensation of 17,200 pounds.

In the year 2005, an American blogger by the name of Aaron Wall was accused of defamation and the revelation of trade secrets by Traffic Power. Traffic Power was banned from Google because they were known to have manipulated results on the search engines. Wall and a few other search engine optimization experts had brought the issue to light to warn the public of Traffic Power’s fraudulent ways. However, the court dismissed the case because of insufficient personal jurisdiction.

There were also bloggers who were imprisoned for giving negative comments on certain issues that are sensitive to religions and governments. An Egyptian blogger by the name of Kareem Amir was arrested for making insulting remarks about the President of Egypt Hosni Murbarak as well as an institution of the Islam religion. A court in Alexandria found him guilty, and he was sentenced to four years in prison. In another case, Jan Pronk, who was the United Nations Special Representative for Sudan, wrote a blog to comment on the armed forces of Sudan. His comments angered the armed forces and they ordered for his deportation.

Blogging has become one of the most effective ways to disseminate news and raise public awareness about current issues around the world. With expert bloggers joining the bandwagon and providing material with in-depth research, bloggers are now regarded as a powerful force that has great influence in the affairs of the world. However, it should be noted that bloggers should exercise a certain extent of caution when they blog, so that they will not get into trouble with the law. As long as blogs are composed with the right intention and discretion, they are widely-accepted as a powerful form of expression that can have immeasurable impact on the society.