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ОглавлениеWhat is a blog?
A blog is a page or site on the internet which is updated with material, usually on a regular basis, by a single writer (‘blogger’). Bloggers can post anything from breaking news to essays, opinions and diaries, often including photos and links to other websites.
What do bloggers write about?
Bloggers write about anything, from what they ate for supper to who they believe is going to win the next general election. Some see blogs as a quick and easy way to communicate their thoughts to a wide audience, but others may simply write in order to clear their thoughts—an online diary. One unifying factor about the majority of blogs is that they are, to varying degrees, personal: ‘A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.’ (Blogger.com)
Are they popular?
Absolutely. Blogging has become a global phenomenon. There are no conclusive statistics on how many blogs there are, but certainly well over 100 million. The popularity of blogs varies enormously, with some attracting few or no visits while others are highly influential and command big readerships.
Who came up with the term?
In 1997 Jorn Barger—an American whose blogs vary from essays on artificial intelligence to James Joyce—came up with the term ‘web log’ when he began logging a daily list of links to websites he had visited. ‘Web log’ was shortened to ‘blog’ by Peter Merholz, a prolific blogger himself, in 1999. However, blogs were in existence before they were given these names. Justin Hall is seen as a pioneer—he began back in 1994 while an intern at Wired magazine. He posted just shy of 5,000 pages worth of entries in 11 years before throwing in the towel.
Dirty laundry
Airing your thoughts on the internet means that anyone might stumble across them, including your employer. In 2004 flight attendant Ellen Simonetti was initially suspended and then fired from her job at the American airline Delta because of photos posted on her blog ‘Queen of Sky’, in which she wrote about the adventures of an anonymous air hostess. One of the photos showed her dressed in uniform, with the company logo visible, which prompted the airline to take action. Similarly, Catherine Sanderson was sacked in 2006 from her secretarial job when her boss stumbled upon her popular blog, ‘Petite Anglaise’, about her life as a Brit in Paris. Although she never named her employers, they claimed that the photos of her on the site identified her, and therefore the firm. Sanderson won a groundbreaking case in which she sued the company for wrongful dismissal and has since written a book, also called Petite Anglaise.
Sleazy does it
Matt Drudge (www.drudgereport.com) is one of America’s best-known bloggers. In 1998 the one-time maverick, who now commands great respect, broke the news that the magazine Newsweek had decided against running a story on President Bill Clinton’s liaison with a White House intern from 1995-7. The following day he revealed her name: Monica Lewinsky. His story was published on a Saturday, and was seized upon by other websites, but it was not until the Wednesday that it appeared in the newspapers.
Diplomatic own goal
Arsenal fan David Miliband, who is also the UK’s Foreign Secretary, got into hot water in 2008 when he aired frustrations on his blog about the Champions’ League quarter-final in which his team lost 4-2 to Liverpool and bowed out of the tournament. The comments in his blog, which is part of the Foreign Office’s website, included criticism of Swiss defender Philippe Senderos, who apparently ‘left half of north London cursing that he was ever let into the country’. An attaché at the Swiss Embassy responded that although the defender may not have had his best game, that was ‘not a reason for a diplomatic incident between two friendly nations’.
