The buzz of blogging phenomenon is growing more and more. Simons, M 2008, an author and media analyst in Australia, stated that the word of 'blog' is now manifestly inadequate because it offers so little differentiation happening in internet based of publication by individuals and groups. Based on this, she listed 9 types of online sites that classify as blogs.
- Pamphleteering blogs, as a similar function as pamphleteer whereby individual or a group of individuals put out a brief essay arguing point of view about the current events, politics, or broader events. For example: Catallaxy - Australia's leading libertarian and centre - right blog.
- Digest blog, collective blogs that summarise or collect facts from mainstream media and also other blogs with small piece of analysis or commentary. For example: Fair go, Fairfax.
- Advocacy blog, almost similar as pamphleteering, but it is usually buy a vested interest group, either an advocacy group, a commercial organization or political party that give information fashion point of view. For example: Telstra
- Popular Mechanics blog: collection of information blogs based on their enthusiasts on how to do stuff with mechanics and how things worked, such as photography, gardening, or scuba diving.
- Exhibition blog: the vanity publishing by craftspeople, artists, or writers that put extraordinary creative works to wider audience on the web and talk about how they did it.
- Gatewatcher blog: the small group of blogs whom are experts in their own field and keep an eye on the media as gatekeepers by critique the reporting of their fields by the media. For instance: Possum Comitatus.
- Australian blog: an Australian blog through blogging in particular issues, such as a terrible beating up over the way in which newspoll was reporting in the leas up to the last election.
- Diary: Snapshots with their family, bits of news about their personal lives up online.
- Advertisement: Commercial companies will pay bloggers to advertise or promote their product.
- News blog, where blogs do break news to the public, such as: Crikey.
Through this, we found out that many blogs are combinations of styles that make it unique. In contrast with TDavid 2008, he found out 8 types of blogging in 2008:
- Linkblog : provides relevant interesting link to the others sites and blog.
- Moblog : uploading pictures from camera phone or mobile device to an established blog.
- Podcast : Audio recording, typically in MP3 format and served through RSS feed.
- Vlog : video recording offered in one or more popular video formats like mp4, or wmv.
- Microblog: a short text message which may or not contain a shortened URL.
- Miniblog : using more significant amount of content from a third party in a post versus creating original material.
- Liveblog : covering some event or particular issue
- Blog : collection of other types of blogging above
By comparing both opinions, we must realize that blogs have variety of genres and that homogeneity is unheard of in the blogosphere, just like what Simons said 'blog is manifestly inadequate'. Therefore, based from the ideas above, blogs could be classified based on target audience and interest, style of writing, or media that being used. For example:
1. Subject matter: Politic(Lim Kit Siang)
An example of one of prominence politic blog in Malaysia, Lim Kit Siang.
An example of Personal Blog/ Diary, which is what I like to do.
History (Blog 4 History: America & Civil War Story) ,Fashion (Tongue in Chic), Food (Babe in the City - KL), Educational (Taylor's Design students Blog)
2. Device/Gadget: Moblog (Jamie Oliver - Moblog pictures from my mobile)
An example of MoBlog by Jamie Oliver.com
3. Media type: Vlog (Youtube), linklog (delicious,social bookmarking),
sketchlog (Andera Joseph's sketchblog), tumblelogs (tumblr)
An example of linklog that provides interesting links to others
4. Publishers: Business blog (Weblog - Rococo Software Ltd), corporate blog (Blogger Buzz)
Like Kress G. and Van Leeuween T (2006) stated, the compositions of element of the multimodal texts are in relation to each other. Audience will seek information based on their interest. Based from the classification that I stated above, I think the most appropriate classification approach is by using taxonomy through the target audience and their interest. Just like Youtube (Vlog), any audience that interest with video blog, they will fo into youtube and share any video that they like. Another example, fashion blog whereby the trend blog in Malaysia currently. Any audiences willing to seek information about this, they will go and find out.
References:
Gaman 2007, 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia: Sabahan.com, retrieved online on 18 April 2010, from: http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading Images, Chapter 1: The Semiotic landscape: language and visual communication, pp. 16-44.
TDavid 2008, The 8 different types of blogging in 2008, retrieved online on 17 April 2010, from: http://www.makeyougohmm.com/2008124/5040
The Different Kinds of Blogs, retrieved online on 18 April 2010, from: http://slais.ubc.ca/curses/libr500/05-06-wt1/www/A_Cho/kinds.htm
WordPress.com, Types of Blogs- WordPress.com, retrieved online on 17 April 2010, from: http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/
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