From 2002 to 2008, Technorati recorded 133 million blogs on the internet (Technorati 2008). Today, bloggers are collectively creating close to one million posts every day (Technorati 2008) and the blogosphere is still expanding. Asia is found to be driving the lead in social media such as blogs, with China, South Korea and Malaysia being the front-runners (Ooi 2007).
According to Brown (2006), top blogs usually focus on technology, a broad range of general issues, or politics, as illustrated below.
Figure 2: Popular Blogging Topics in the UK
Blogs and Politics
In the Malaysian context, blogs were a significant tool in raising political awareness in the country leading up to the 2008 March 8 elections. Raja Petra, editor of Malaysiakini, believed that blogs successfully reduced political apathy and roused the middle class to vote. It is said that cyberspace was where the 2008 elections were won and lost (Au Yong 2008).
Figure 3: Nuffnang, Malaysia's Blog Advertising Company(Source: mohdhakim.com/2009/05/nuffnang-xchange/)
Blogs and Brands
Business and advertising have also benefited from the popularity of blogs. In Malaysia, blogs have been harnessed as an avenue for advertising. One of the reasons is due to the interactive and more personal nature of blogs, hence enhancing connections between brands and their customers. Nuffnang, Asia's first blog advertising community launched in February 2007, has now been expended to the Philippines and Australia (Nuffnang 2009). In other parts of the world, brands have also permeated the blogosphere and one third of bloggers have been approached by companies to blog about brands (Technorati 2008).
There is a lot of potential for the blogosphere to continue impacting new media. Citizen journalism, for example, is a growing trend. Who could have said it better than Richard MacManus, Founder/Editor of ReadWriteWeb:
“The future of blogs will have arrived when you check your favorite blog for
sports news in the morning, instead of your local paper.”
References:
1. Au Yong, J 2008, ‘Battle Lost in Cyberspace’, Malaysia Today, viewed 1 June 2009, <http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/4201/84/>.
2. Brown, S 2006, 'Leading Average: Top Blog Trends', Modern Life, viewed 1 June 2009, <http://modernl.com/article/leading-average-top-blog-trends>.
3. Nuffnang 2009, Our Story, viewed 3 June 2009, <http://www.nuffnang.com.my/about-us>.
4. Ooi, YM 2007, 'Blogging Thrives in Malaysia', Communication World, viewed 3 June 2009, <http://www.box.net/shared/8csyz6qg94>.
5. Technorati 2008, State of the Blogosphere, viewed 30 May 2009, <http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere>.
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