Story By Bill Jacobs
nce again, proving that there is nothing new under the sun, easily
one of the most popular and fastest growing tools of our technological age
is the unlikely named activity, the blog. This ungainly contraction of the
words “web” and “log” results in a rather, well, distasteful sounding four-letter word, one we must reckon with.
But is it so new? Not really. The “web” portion certainly refers to the
world we live in, however the “log” is right out of maritime history. A
typical page from a four-masted ship carefully details locations, conditions,
and important events of an ocean voyage. Ship’s logs have captured
the essence of maritime travel since man began to utilize the earliest
navigational concepts and tools. So it should not be surprising that blogs
have become commonplace on recreational voyages taken in this modern
world. In fact, given the nautical derivation, maybe these maritime journals
should be called “slogs,” a contraction of the term “ship” and “log.”
It is only fitting to refer to the most ubiquitous source of new web-
based knowledge, the famous Wikipedia site, to begin to understand the
blog. There are those who view the entries with suspicion, as professional
editing is not one of its hallmarks, but then, neither is it for the blog.
According to Wikipedia, the blog “is a type of website, usually maintained
by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of
events, or other materials such as graphics or video.”
Although they are primarily textual, blogs differ from email messages
because of the layout, the reverse chronological sequence, embedding of
photographs, videos, or links, and the inclusion of running commentary
by the audience. The layout can utilize the owner’s choice of a variety of
templates offered by popular blog sites such as Google’s Blogger, or they
can be custom designed, sometimes with very artistic results, making a
dramatic impact.
The modern blog developed from online diaries. It is generally accepted
that blogging began in 1994 with Justin Hall, a student at the time at
Swarthmore College. The New York Times in 2004 referred to him as the
founding father of personal blogging. Blogging grew rapidly in the late
1990s. The launch of Open Diary in 1998 marked the first blog community
where readers could add their comments. In 2002, an early milestone in
the use of blogs for political purpose came when U.S. Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott made remarks on a blog site that were considered to
be racially biased. The major media organizations did not report on the
controversial comments until blogs broke the story. By 2004 the blog was
widely recognized as a mainstream communication tool that continues to
affect the traditional journalism industry.
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