DIFFERENT

TYPE

S OF

BLOG

By Mike Ham

INTRODUCTION

When it comes to blogging, the user has to be creative and think. They must decide:

• What kind of blog they want,

• The content it will share,

• The way they deliver it in terms of speech,

• Who the readers will be.

The blogger has to have….

VISION

IMAGINATIONCREATIVTY INNOVATION

There are many examples of different blogs and I will look at a range of examples.

PERSONAL BLOGGINGThis type of blogging is where the blogger

represents something personal about themselves online. For example, a personal diary expressing how how you feel through the use of photographs or text.

Posts are deliberately written with care and wit are edited before being published, (Rettberg, 2008, p9) as bloggers might not want to show their whole life story online. Bloggers will take pride in their blog even if nobody reads it. They become a way to act on life.

Screen shots of Armstrong's Blog taken 8th February 2012

As bloggers are blogging posts, each post usually represents an episode of a story. They have a beginning and an end and

when all posts read together it creates a larger story. A fragmented narrative is created (Rettberg, 2008, p.111)

PERSONAL BLOGGING CONTINUED

Jill Walker Rettberg

One strong example of a personal blog is

Dooce.com.

This blog was set up by Heather B. Armstrong in February 2001 and the main subject is her life. It contains stories about her life as a mother of a young child and photos of her dog and daughter. Her blog is regularly changed for example, the banner at the top and the colour scheme to keep readers interested in the blog. Links to her ‘about me page’ where the purpose and history of her blog is explained are shown along with her photograph as well as other links linking to various posts. Her blog was one of the first successful blog to use advertising. (more on this later in my blog when looking at the influences.)

PERSONAL BLOGGING CONTINUED

FILTER BLOGGINGWhile personal blogs like Dooce focus on the

life of the blogger, filter blogs filter the web from the

bloggers point of view, recording the bloggers experiences and finds on the web. (Rettberg P12)

Usually there are dominant topics, but these can change as the bloggers interests change over time.

Screen shots of BoingBoing taken 8th February 2012

Like most blogs, the layout is the same, with main content in the widest columns, but in a filter blog there are links linking the reader to other posts and articles all over the web.

Filter blogging is an example of an on going narrative. We read with a certainty that there will be an end, and when that is reached we can look back and see the whole. With filter blogging this is possible as you can read the post and come back to it and look at it seeing that that particular topic on that post has ended.

FILTER BLOGGING CONTINUED

A good example of this type of blogging is

boingboing.net.This blog provides posts with links to crazy web

finds, whether that’s a video, photograph or text. It has a huge range of topics. It contains an archive that filters all the blog posts found on the blog, the darker the colour of the link, the more popular the topic and on each post readers are able to post a comment

FILTER BLOGGING CONTINUED

MICRO BLOGGING

Micro blogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging, differing from traditional blogging as its content is smaller in file size and actual content. Micro blogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links". (Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein Michael (2011)

Screen shots of Twitter taken 9h February 2012

MICRO BLOGGING CONTINUED

As with traditional

blogging, micro bloggers post about topics ranging from the simple such as what they are doing, to topics such as Fabio Capello quitting on England FC. They can also be micro corporate blogs promoting themselves.

Screen shot of Twitter taken 9h February 2012

A popular micro blogging site is twitter.com

Twitter was set up in 2006. It allows you to follow your interests, friends, industry experts, favourite celebrities and view what's happening around the world. It limits the blogger to 140 characters. Each post is known as a ‘tweet’ and it generates millions of tweets per day and is described as SMS of the internet. The famous # feature of twitter allows bloggers to participate in topics happening around the world live. For example #Redknapformanager. This is a discussion about the favourite for the next England manager to manage the nations football team.

MICRO BLOGGING CONTINUED

TOPIC DRIVEN BLOGGING

Many blogs are focused on topics whatever it may be. There are many different kinds of topic driven blogs as there are hobbies, passions and professions. It could be as diverse as knitting (Brooklyn Tweed) finance (get rich slowly) or digital art and electronic literature (GrandTextAuto). (Rettberg 2008 P15) They all share newly discovered ideas, news, conversations and information to their readers via the web.

Screen shots of Daily Kos Blog taken 8th February 2012

Many of these blogs are ran

individually, but they are often ran collaboratively by a group of contributors. They prioritize in debate between the people posting blogs and the people commenting on them.

TOPIC DRIVEN BLOGGING CONTINUED

A large topic driven blog would be about politics. An example of

this would be dailykos.com

TOPIC DRIVEN BLOGGING CONTINUED

Founded in 2002 by Markos Moulistas, it is one of the most popular political blogs. He writes many of the posts himself but also has a number of contributors. As a starting point, posts take a news article, press release or another blog, and then show sections of the post and criticise or add points made in the quotation. Posts then link back to the source which allows readers to read the whole article if they choose to do so. This is discussion orientated and can lead to extensive conversations across blogs creating

participation.

CORPORATE AND ORGANIZATIONAL BLOGSA blog can be private as in most cases, or it can be used

for businesses. Businesses use corporate blogs externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes and to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation.

Screen shot of Catipillarlithium taken 9h February 2012

The best corporate blogs are dominated by the technology sector. (Mark Schaefer) For example IBM. It is argued that corporate blogs have evolved past the idea of personal journalism. Any company has a goal and there is likely to be a blog supporting it. For this

kind of blog is goal orientated narrative. They have a clear goal in mind, for example to promote their corporation. The goal is clearly expressed when the blog is set up, and is summarized in the side bar for new readers. The blog should end when the goal is reached.

CORPORATE AND ORGANIZATIONAL BLOGS CONTINUED

Corporate blogs are a great advantage for your company. http://www.businessesgrow.com/2010/11/07/ten-reasons-to-blog-even-if-nobody-reads-it/ .

An example of this blog is

Catipllarlitium.comIts goals are: Problem-solving, community-building,

loyalty. Caterpillar established separate blogs based on industry (construction, electrical, marine) with sub-categories under each industry (products, safety, problem-solving). This company does engages customers, using the community to solve problems, and rewarding customer ideas.

CORPORATE AND ORGANIZATIONAL BLOGS CONTINUED

GENRE SPECIFIC BLOGGINGWithin the medium of blogs you can identify the genre and sub

genres. This is defined by their form of content and its particular subject. For example a travel, music or a film review blog. A strong majority of blogs found on the web are genre based as these are normally made by bloggers who are interested in a certain subject and blog about it.

Screen shot of Music Arcades taken 9h February 2012

An example of a genre specific blog is

musicarcades.comThis was set up by David Jennings in 2005, and he

recorded for one hour a day on the music in his collection and based it on everyday life. His reasons for setting this blog up was that it was connective and a gift to the people. This is a perfect example of

Gauntletts “Making is Sharing”. This blog ended after 5 years in 2011 because it was as complete as it was as complete as its ever going to be.

GENRE SPECIFIC BLOGGING CONTINUED

MEDIA TYPE BLOGA popular type of blog used by many bloggers.

This is when a specific type of media is used to blog. For example, Photo blogging, Link Blogging, Vloging (video blogging) and Tumble blogging (mixture of everything)

Media type blogs act as a Self exploration narrative .Just as we study ourselves in a mirror, shaping our features so are reflection pleases us, we created a reflection of ourselves in a weblog. (Rettberg p120) . Regular readers come to know the characters and places in the bloggers life and that there are also experiences and thoughts that the blogger deliberately doesn't share.

Screen shots of Media type blogs taken 9h February 2012

Some Great examples of this type of blog include: Flickr.com, The Shaytards on YouTube and Tumblr.com

Flickr allows bloggers to manage and share photos that they have taken to the world via the web. This is evidence of Gauntletts, “Making is Connecting”. By sharing photographs to other people a community is set up in which people are able to participate with each other commenting on photographs and using them for their blogs.

The Shaytards is a YouTube channel ran by Carl Shaytard who vlogs about his family. He uploads a video everyday to the web. Vlogs are set out to entertain viewers with news and are often ran by a real person or a person who creates a character.

Tumblr is a mixture of media tumbled into one. It consists of links, videos, photos and much more media. Much more on what this is shall be done in my Case Study.

MEDIA TYPE BLOG CONTINUED

CONCLUSIONSupporting what I previously said in my blog

about what a blog is, there is a wide range of blogs that a blogger can choose from, to represent what they are trying to achieve. Something traditional media cannot do. Most blogs encourage a large amount of participation.

REFERENCESCorporate Blog by Caterpillar [WWW] available at http://www.cat.com/about-the-company (accessed

09/02/2012)

Filter Blog, BoingBoing [WWW] available at: http://boingboing.net/ (accessed 08/02/2012)

Jenning, David, Music Arcade [WWW] available at: http://www.musicarcades.com/ (accessed 09/02/2012)

Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein Michael (2011) The early bird catches the news: Nine things you should know about micro-blogging, [WWW] available from: http://redhanded.hobix.com/inspect/tumbleloggingAssortedLarvae.html (accessed 09/02/2012)

Personal Blog, Armstrong, B. Heather Blog [WWW] available at: http://dooce.com/ (Accessed (08/02/2012)

Political blog [WWW] available at: http://www.dailykos.com/ (accessed 08/02/2012)

Rettberg, Walker Jill (2008) Blogging. Digital Media and Society Series, Cambridge, Polity Press

Schaefer, Mark, The 10 Best corporate blogs in the world [WWW] available at: http://socialmediatoday.com/markwschaefer/258359/10-best-corporate-blogs-world accessed: 09/02/2012)

Shaytard, Carl, YouTube channel The Tards [WWW] available at: http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAYTARDS?ob=0 (accessed 08/02/2012)