a summary of the differnt types of blog

1. By Mike Ham

2. INTRODUCTION
When it comes to blogging, the user has to be creative and think.
They must decide:
• What kind of blog they want,
• The content it will share,
• The way they deliver it in terms of speech,
IMAGINATION
• Who the readers will be.
The blogger has to have….
CREATIVTY INNOVATION
VISION
There are many examples of different blogs and I will look at a range of
examples.

3. PERSONAL BLOGGING
This type of blogging is where the
blogger represents
something personal
about themselves online.
For example, a personal diary
expressing how how you feel
through the use of photographs or
text.
Posts are deliberately written with
care and wit are edited before
being
published, (Rettberg, 2008, p9) as
bloggers might not want to show
their whole life story online.
Bloggers will take pride in their
blog even if nobody reads it. They
become a way to act on life.
Screen shots of Armstrong's Blog taken 8th February 2012

4. As bloggers are blogging
posts, each post usually
represents an episode
of a story. They have a
beginning and an end and
when all posts read
together it creates a
larger story. A
fragmented narrative
is created Jill Walker Rettberg
(Rettberg, 2008, p.111)
PERSONAL BLOGGING CONTINUED

5. One strong example of a personal blog is
Dooce.com.
This blog was set up by Heather B. Armstrong in
February 2001 and the main subject is her life. It
contains stories about her life as a mother of a
young child and photos of her dog and daughter.
Her blog is regularly changed for example, the
banner at the top and the colour scheme to keep
readers interested in the blog. Links to her „about
me page‟ where the purpose and history of her
blog is explained are shown along with her
photograph as well as other links linking to various
posts. Her blog was one of the first successful
blog to use advertising. (more on this later in my
blog when looking at the influences.)
PERSONAL BLOGGING CONTINUED

6. FILTER BLOGGING
While personal blogs like Dooce focus on
the life of the blogger, filter
blogs filter the web from the
bloggers point of view, recording
the bloggers experiences
and finds on the web.
(Rettberg P12)
Usually there are dominant
topics, but these can change
as the bloggers interests
change over time.
Screen shots of BoingBoing taken 8th February 2012

7. Like most blogs, the layout is the same, with main content
in the widest columns, but in a filter blog there are links
linking the reader to other posts and articles all over
the web.
Filter blogging is an example of an on going
narrative. We read with a certainty that there will be
an end, and when that is reached we can look back
and see the whole. With filter blogging this is possible
as you can read the post and come back to it and look
at it seeing that that particular topic on that post has
ended.
FILTER BLOGGING CONTINUED

8. A good example of this type of blogging is
boingboing.net.
This blog provides posts with links to crazy web
finds, whether that‟s a video, photograph or
text. It has a huge range of topics. It contains an
archive that filters all the blog posts found on
the blog, the darker the colour of the link, the
more popular the topic and on each post
readers are able to post a comment
FILTER BLOGGING CONTINUED

9. Micro blogging is
a broadcast medium in
the form of
blogging, differing from
traditional blogging as its
content is smaller in file
size and actual content.
Micro blogs "allow users
to exchange small
elements of content
such as short
sentences, individual
images, or video links".
(Kaplan Andreas
M., Haenlein Michael Screen shots of Twitter taken 9h February 2012
(2011)
MICRO BLOGGING

10. As with traditional
blogging, micro
bloggers post
about topics
ranging from the simple
such as what they are
doing, to topics such as
Fabio Capello quitting on
England FC. They can
also be micro corporate
blogs promoting Screen shot of Twitter taken 9h February 2012
themselves.
MICRO BLOGGING CONTINUED

11. A popular micro blogging site is twitter.com
Twitter was set up in 2006. It allows you to follow your
interests, friends, industry experts, favourite celebrities
and view what's happening around the world. It limits the
blogger to 140 characters. Each post is known as a
„tweet‟ and it generates millions of tweets per day and is
described as SMS of the internet. The famous # feature
of twitter allows bloggers to participate in topics
happening around the world live. For example
#Redknapformanager. This is a discussion about the
favourite for the next England manager to manage the
nations football team.
MICRO BLOGGING CONTINUED

12. TOPIC DRIVEN BLOGGING
Many blogs are focused on
topics whatever it may be.
There are many different kinds of
topic driven blogs as there are
hobbies, passions and professions. It
could be as diverse as knitting
(Brooklyn Tweed) finance (get rich
slowly) or digital art and electronic
literature (GrandTextAuto). (Rettberg
2008 P15) They all share newly
discovered
ideas, news, conversations and
information to their readers via the
web.
Screen shots of Daily Kos Blog taken 8th February 2012

13. Many of these blogs are ran
individually, but they are often ran
collaboratively by a group of
contributors. They prioritize in debate
between the people posting blogs and
the people commenting on them.
TOPIC DRIVEN BLOGGING CONTINUED

14. A large topic driven blog would be about politics. An example of this
would be dailykos.com
Founded in 2002 by Markos Moulistas, it is one of
the most popular political blogs. He writes many of
the posts himself but also has a number of
contributors. As a starting point, posts take a news
article, press release or another blog, and then
show sections of the post and criticise or add
points made in the quotation. Posts then link back
to the source which allows readers to read the
whole article if they choose to do so. This is
discussion orientated and can lead to extensive
conversations across blogs creating
participation.
TOPIC DRIVEN BLOGGING CONTINUED

15. CORPORATE AND ORGANIZATIONAL BLOGS
A blog can be private as in most cases, or it can be used for
businesses. Businesses use corporate blogs externally for
marketing, branding or public relations
purposes and to enhance the communication
and culture in a corporation.
Screen shot of Catipillarlithium taken 9h February 2012

16. The best corporate blogs are dominated by the technology
sector. (Mark Schaefer) For example IBM. It is argued that
corporate blogs have evolved past the idea of personal
journalism. Any company has a goal and there is likely to
be a blog supporting it. For this kind of blog is goal
orientated narrative. They have a clear
goal in mind, for example to promote their corporation.
The goal is clearly expressed when the blog is set up, and
is summarized in the side bar for new readers. The blog
should end when the goal is reached.
CORPORATE AND ORGANIZATIONAL BLOGS CONTINUED

17. Corporate blogs are a great advantage for your company.
http://www.businessesgrow.com/2010/11/07/ten-reasons-
to-blog-even-if-nobody-reads-it/ .
An example of this blog is Catipllarlitium.com
Its goals are: Problem-solving, community-building, loyalty.
Caterpillar established separate blogs based on industry
(construction, electrical, marine) with sub-categories
under each industry (products, safety, problem-solving).
This company does engages customers, using the
community to solve problems, and rewarding customer
ideas.
CORPORATE AND ORGANIZATIONAL BLOGS CONTINUED

18. GENRE SPECIFIC BLOGGING
Within the medium of blogs you can identify the genre and sub genres.
This is defined by their form of content and its particular
subject. For example a travel, music or a film review blog. A strong
majority of blogs found on the web are genre based as these are
normally made by bloggers who are interested in a certain subject and
blog about it.
Screen shot of Music Arcades taken 9h February 2012

19. An example of a genre specific blog is
musicarcades.com
This was set up by David Jennings in 2005, and he
recorded for one hour a day on the music in his
collection and based it on everyday life. His reasons for
setting this blog up was that it was connective and a
gift to the people. This is a perfect example of
Gauntletts “Making is Sharing”. This
blog ended after 5 years in 2011 because it was as
complete as it was as complete as its ever going to be.
GENRE SPECIFIC BLOGGING CONTINUED

20. MEDIA TYPE BLOG
A popular type of blog used by many bloggers. This is
when a specific type of media is used to blog. For
example, Photo blogging, Link Blogging, Vloging
(video blogging) and Tumble blogging (mixture of
everything)
Media type blogs act as a Self exploration
narrative .Just as we study ourselves in a
mirror, shaping our features so are reflection
pleases us, we created a reflection of ourselves in
a weblog. (Rettberg p120) . Regular readers come
to know the characters and places in the bloggers
life and that there are also experiences and
thoughts that the blogger deliberately doesn't
share.
Screen shots of Media type blogs taken 9h February 2012

21. Some Great examples of this type of blog include: Flickr.com, The
Shaytards on YouTube and Tumblr.com
Flickr allows bloggers to manage and share photos that they have taken to
the world via the web. This is evidence of Gauntletts, “Making is
Connecting”. By sharing photographs to other people a community is set
up in which people are able to participate with each other commenting on
photographs and using them for their blogs.
The Shaytards is a YouTube channel ran by Carl Shaytard who vlogs
about his family. He uploads a video everyday to the web. Vlogs are set
out to entertain viewers with news and are often ran by a real person or a
person who creates a character.
Tumblr is a mixture of media tumbled into one. It consists of
links, videos, photos and much more media. Much more on what this is
shall be done in my Case Study.
MEDIA TYPE BLOG CONTINUED

22. CONCLUSION
Supporting what I previously said in my blog about what a
blog is, there is a wide range of blogs that a blogger can
choose from, to represent what they are trying to achieve.
Something traditional media cannot do. Most blogs
encourage a large amount of participation.

23. REFERENCES
Corporate Blog by Caterpillar [WWW] available at http://www.cat.com/about-the-company (accessed
09/02/2012)
Filter Blog, BoingBoing [WWW] available at: http://boingboing.net/ (accessed 08/02/2012)
Jenning, David, Music Arcade [WWW] available at: http://www.musicarcades.com/ (accessed 09/02/2012)
Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein Michael (2011) The early bird catches the news: Nine things you should know
about micro-blogging, [WWW] available from:
http://redhanded.hobix.com/inspect/tumbleloggingAssortedLarvae.html (accessed 09/02/2012)
Personal Blog, Armstrong, B. Heather Blog [WWW] available at: http://dooce.com/ (Accessed (08/02/2012)
Political blog [WWW] available at: http://www.dailykos.com/ (accessed 08/02/2012)
Rettberg, Walker Jill (2008) Blogging. Digital Media and Society Series, Cambridge, Polity Press
Schaefer, Mark, The 10 Best corporate blogs in the world [WWW] available at:
http://socialmediatoday.com/markwschaefer/258359/10-best-corporate-blogs-world accessed:
09/02/2012)
Shaytard, Carl, YouTube channel The Tards [WWW] available at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAYTARDS?ob=0 (accessed 08/02/2012)