The Online Outlet

According to the online Merriam Webster dictionary, a blog is a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. The word is an abbreviation of “weblog,” a term coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger, who was popularly known as the editor of a famous early weblog, Robot Wisdom. The American blogger said that the term weblog, from the words “web” and “log,” was used to describe how he “logged the web” or recorded his internet wanderings (Wortham, 2007). Peter Merholz of Peterme.com was responsible for abbreviating the term into “blog” in 1999, jokingly splitting the word into “we blog.” Blogs are frequently updated websites, usually personal, with commentary and links. They consist of relatively short posts, usually time-stamped, and organized in reverse chronology so that readers would find the most recent post first (Mortensen & Walker, 2002). It is basically a website filled with different entries. A blog is generally public, though some websites like Tumblr provide an option to keep the blog private through passwords. Other online blogging platforms like LiveJournal and allow users to hide specific posts for their security.

Blog entries usually come from a single author, but collaborative or multi-author blogs exist as well. The latter type of blogs is commonly used for broadcasting news, businesses, and common ideas for a large group of people.

There are various ways of classifying blogs, namely through:

1. Purpose. Was the blog created for personal thoughts? For business? For news?
2. Information delivery. Is the blog hosted by blogging software or is it a microblog?
3. Content. What is the ‘genre’ of the blog? Does it have a specific subject matter?
4. Media type. What kind of media is used to exhibit posts in the blog?

Blogs are commonly known to be online journals or diaries where the author could talk about anything he or she wishes to. Blogs contain links, stories, or

References: Blog (2013). Merriam Webster Online Dictionary. Hourihan, M. (2002). What We 're Doing When We Blog. Web Development DevCenter. http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/2474 Miller, C. R. & Shepherd, D. (2004). Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog. Into the Blogosphere. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.html Mortensen, T http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.156.7392&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=257 Percic, Eva (2012) Sullivan, A. (2008) Why I Blog. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/why-i-blog/307060/ Types of Blogs (2011) http://www.newsbyblog.com/types-blogs-comprehensive-overview.html# Types of Blogs (2012)