Blogging: A Phenomenon Across The Globe

The term 'Global Village' as defined by McLuhan (1964) describes societies across the global as an integrated whole by the power of media. Internet breaks nation boundaries and makes it possible for limitless communication to take place. When talk about the era of modern communication, blogging as a component of internet plays a major role in it.

Based on an annual survey of growth and trend in blogosphere by Technorati (2010), majority of the existing blogs worldwide are used for personal documentary, where people mainly blog for fun. These bloggers are categorized as 'hobbyist'.

In the local context, the existence of blogs is profoundly predominant that Malaysia was ranked as third highest country with number of 500,000 active bloggers (The Star 2008)


Blog is no longer treated as merely blog, but a powerful tool that can influence people's minds, especially in politics. Information available on political blogs has been used to persuade citizens' perspectives and decision making during election.


Examples of prominent political blogs in Malaysia are as below;

http://chedet.co.cc/ by former Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr. Tun Mahathir Mohamad

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/ by DAP Parliamentary leader, Lim Kit Siang

Blog also brings great social impact to the society as it is utilized as a platform where individuals can voice their opinion. Other than that, blog can also stand as a news source that provides "an instantaneous coverage of noteworthy news events from a very vivid, personal and localised context" (Tang, 2006). However, it is important to take note that credibility of the source needs to be questioned.


References:
McLuhan, M 1964, Understanding Media, Mentor, New York.

Sobel, J 2010, State of Blogosphere 2010, Technorati, viewed 19th April 2011, available at<http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/>

Tang, HW 2006,Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom: Digital Speech in Malaysia, Asian Journal of Comparative Law: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1, Article 12, viewed on 19th April 2011, available at<http://www.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?context=asjcl&article=1012&date=&mt=MTMwMzE4NDgyNA==&access_ok_form=Continue>

The Star 2008, Blogging in Malaysia ranks among highest in the world, viewed at 19th April 2011, available at <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/3/nation/20827588&sec=nation>