Figure 1: Blogs
A Blog is technically a virtual diary of today. Contrary to a physical diary which is design to be kept secret and personal, a blog is very much a public course. But as public and open as it gets, the blogger has an option to limit its viewer’s access.
Blogging has somehow become a phenomenon among today’s generation and one have to wonder about the size of the current blogosphere. According to Technorati (2009), there was no definite number of the current size, they could only confirm that they were following about a staggering number of 200 million blogs currently.
Figure 2: Blogging in the Middle East
Figure 3: Blogging in Malaysia
Blogging trends were mostly derived from different continents and countries. Interestingly enough, bloggers in the Middle East started blogging in English first. This is because they were targeting the American audiences. As the bloggers became famous in America, they then targeted a specific group discussing mostly about internal social development and diplomatic perceptions between the two countries. As Krape (2009), pointed out that Middle Eastern bloggers then went into a second phase of blogging where they paid less attention to America and focused more domestically. The blogs were then written in local languages and dialects to cater to most locals. The bloggers were mainly activists and oppositions that touch on police brutality, protest restrictions and corruption. The third phase came about when blogging in the Middle East was made conveniently known to the public, many active engagements were exchanged and many took part in public discussions, political debates, national policies and so on. The third phase saw the involvement of youths in many of its engagements (Darren Krape, 2009).
Malaysia’s blogging trends are no different than the rest of Asia. Like many Asian bloggers, Malaysian leverages on blogs to build their networking, to conduct commercial practices or even seek educational solutions. And now with the advancement of technology, blogging is made easy by a few touches on a mobile device. Blogging in Asia has become more of a job now rather then something to do just to past the time (Sobri, 2008).
Can you imagine that blogging about women’s fashion in the Middle East is prohibited. According to Richardson (2009), the female gender in the Middle East has no liberal authorities to be heard. The types of blogs that are common in the Middle East are mostly on national interest and politics as oppose to America, a free democratic society, most blogs are prevalent and ranges from politics to technology to gay rights. Malaysia on other hand, have more blogs on national development, business, technology, education and politics (Richardson, 2009).
What is beneficial about these type of blogs are that they flip to the other side of the story that traditional media does not cover. It also brings untold awareness to communities that are remotely deprived of the truth. The used of blogs in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign proven to be beneficial when 24% of his voters were bloggers themselves (Brooks, 2009). In Iran, blogs on political topics are banned and if found doing so, bloggers will be jailed and might even be tortured. The ban on political blogging has been extended to all forms of blogging regardless of the topics (BBC News, 2005). And in Malaysia, the public rely heavily on bloggers to share their first hand experience towards a certain topic. For example, Khairy Jamaluddin, an MP of Rembau’s constituency, shared his honest opinion about the leadership in UMNO sometime back in 2009. Some said it was a bold move.
References
BBC Website, (2005). The price paid for blogging Iran. (Online). Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4283231.stm (Accessed on 25/08/2011).
Brooks., R., (2009). What businesses can learn from Barack Obama’s social media strategy. (Online). Available at: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/rich-brooks/social-media-strategies-small-business/what-businesses-can-learn-barack-obamas-soci (Accessed on 25/08/2011).
Krape., D., (2009). Blogging the Middle East. (Online). Available at: http://www.darrenkrape.com/blogging-the-middle-east/ (Accessed on 25/08/2011).
Richardson., W., (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. CA: Sage.
Sobri., N., (2008). Blogging Trends. (Online). Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/myPajamanation/blogging-trends-affecting-penang-malaysia-presentation (Accessed on 25/08/2011).
Technorati Website., (2009). State of the blogosphere 2009. (Online). Available at: http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/ (Accessed on 25/08/2011).
Overall, very informative. Good work! Some improvements could be: write more concisely & shorten the lengths; relate blogging phenomenon to new media concepts/ qualities, eg. depth, interactivity & immediacy. :)
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