What is it?

Basically a blog is an online journal.

Blogs began to emerge in and around the early 1990’s; relatively new to the media world. Many think that it was the college community who really launched blogs into popularity, regardless, today blogs are prominent in all facets of online communities. Over the last decade blogs among business communities, artists, musicians, students, hobby enthusiasts, and an ever-growing number of other groups have started to emerge.  

Bloggers, or those people who publish blogs, often use a variety of media including sound, video, and images to make their point, and like any other popular media blogs have continued to grow and branch into more specialized forms.
A blog that is published in the form of a video instead of written is known as a vlog, or video log. There are also photoblogs, and sketchblogs as well as blogs that are written mobile devices, known as moblogs.

Blogs are also broken down by content and can be categorized as political blogs, fashion blogs, specific industry blogs, and more. Several industries have also found that blogging is useful in trading information and so the corporate blog was born. These online journals are often public, inviting readers from all over the world but can also be private as well.
It was around 1994 to 1996 when blogs really started to take shape among internet users, and have since become an internet staple. Blogging, and Bloggers have played a major role in media, news coverage, political issues, pop culture and numerous other assets in our society.[1]

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How is it being used?

As mentioned above blogs have reached across many aspects of our society including media, news coverage, political issues, pop culture and more, and have given everyday internet users the ability to broadcast their ideas on these issues.

Today there are an estimated six million to seven million bloggers worldwide.[12] These consumers are using blogs to share ideas and opinions, ponder phenomenon, and simply put their ideas on the net for others to see. For example Bloggers might blog about a specific news story and gain feedback from peers. Bloggers also blog about political happenings and campaign runners. 

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Can I see an Example?

Sites like LiveJournal and Blogger have grown to millions of Bloggers.

Click the photos to the right to visit some popular blogger sites.

Specific types of blogs.

Work Hard + Be Nice to People is an example of an industry blog.

Toothpastefordinner is an example of a personal blog
           
           
Democratic Conversation is an example of a political blog
           
           
Why LOST Sucks is an example of a media blog (TV Show)

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