Blogging

The interviews with Stephen Mayne and Trevor Barr were recorded for the website From Wireless to Web, produced in 2005.

Stephen Mayne was the founder and editor of independent news service crikey.com. You can view their full biographies at From Wireless to Web Trevor Barr is an author, professor and the Director of the Creative Industries Research & Applications Centre at the Queensland University of Technology.

The website is a selective history of broadcast media in Australia. Decade by decade, from radio and newsreels to TV and the internet, this history shows how the Australian broadcast media developed and shaped the way Australians see themselves.

From Wireless to Web is a Film Australia production in association with Roar Film.

This Digital Resource can be used to achieve some of the outcomes of the NSW Information Processes and Technology Stage 6 syllabus; specifically the following outcomes:
P4.1: describes the historical development of information systems and relates these to current and emerging technologies.
H3.1: evaluates the effect of information systems on the individual, society and the environment.
H4.1: proposes ways in which information systems will meet emerging needs.

This material is an extract. Teachers and students should consult the Board of Studies website for more information.

The advent of the World Wide Web radically changed the online experience. At last information could be interpreted and displayed in a standardised form across the vast 'web’ of different computer networks. Cyberspace was transformed, appearing as a seamless global information system, enabling users anywhere to search, browse and interact. Now the Internet and Web are redefining the nature of human communication, and challenging traditional limits to human relationships and communities.

Blogging
The advent of the Internet means that anybody can 'broadcast’ from home to a potential audience of one billion other Internet users. The Internet also enables readers to respond to such broadcasts.

The word 'blog’ comes from 'weblog’, meaning a signed and dated log of postings by an individual. Some bloggers simply post writing to their blog for people to read. Others make their blog an interactive experience. Interactive weblogs can allow a reader to add their comments to the blog which can escalate into conversations amongst readers and the blogger. Lately, some bloggers have become well-known commentators on the political scene. But blogging can encompass any topic or no topic at all. Some bloggers distribute their postings to other web pages or to readers directly.

Blogs illustrate the way that traditional broadcast media have been disrupted by the Internet. In theory anyone can become a published and recognised authority on the Web, because the barriers of entry to traditional broadcasting do not exist online. The Internet has no direct equivalents to news editors, producers, station managers and owners – the 'gatekeepers’ of content for radio and television.

Bloogz.com is both a blog search engine, and a website that ranks the popularity of blogs. Estimates for the number of active blogs worldwide range between 2.4 million and 2.9 million.

1. Since their appearance on the Web in 1995, blogs have continued to grow in popularity and social significance. At the time of writing this Digital Resource (August 2006) there is estimated to be approximately 100 million blogs available on the Internet.
   1. Discuss why has blogging become such a phenomenon in recent years.
2. Mainstream journalists at the Sydney Morning Herald are using blogs as well as writing traditional newspaper articles.
   1. Analyse the style and structure of blogs and comment on what you see as the benefit for journalists.
   2. Discuss the claim that Stephen Mayne’s comments about blogging are coloured by his journalistic background. Are his comments valid?
3. Visit a blogging site such as Blogger
   1. Conduct a search for blogs related to a topic you are interested in.
   2. Read and critically evaluate two of the blogs you have found.
   3. Create a class blog. Take turns writing entries about each lesson.

Go to From Wireless to Web for more about the history of broadcast media in Australia.

Blogger: Create your Blog Now

Electronic Frontier Foundation, Legal Guide for Bloggers

HowStuffWorks, How Blogs Work

Online Journalism Review, Blog software comparison chart

Sydney Morning Herald, Blog Central