Blogs As Current Phenomenon and Benefits to the Community

Over 70 million of weblogs were tracked in 2007 compared to 4 million back in 2004 (Sifry, 2007). This indicates that the growth of blogosphere has been rising tremendously. While the latest number of tracked blogs are not given by Technorati, MacLean (2009) stated that bloggers are now blogging even more and the State of the Blogosphere is strong.

Source: www.technorati.com

Self-expression and sharing expertise remain to be the primary factors for bloggers (Sussman, 2009). In Malaysian context, Gaman (2007) found out that 28% of the Malaysian Top 50 Bloggers write about their personal stuff through his survey. About 16% of bloggers take on technology and politics respectively. The reason of this trend may be due to 64% of Malaysian bloggers are female which 56% of them wanted to have a space for their opinions (Ooi, 2006).

The print media in Malaysia is strictly controlled by government. Therefore, blogs become an alternative way to search for in-depth information that are shunned by mainstream media. It is beneficial because blogs provide us different aspects on news found in mainstream media as we no longer blindly believe what is reported on paper. In Malaysia, taking politics into context, opposition parties were able to take over the ruling power for 5 states in 2008 Malaysia General Election. This is because they were able to state out their messages and reach the masses through blogs which the government have limited control on online publishing media. Thus, the community are able to obtain wider perspective in political landscape.



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References
Gaman 2007, 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia, Sabahan.com, viewed 27 September 2010, from <http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/>

MacLean, J 2009, State of the Blogosphere 2009 Introduction, Technorati, viewed 26 September 2010, from <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/>

Ooi, J 2006, Microsoft: '64% of Malaysian bloggers are female', AsianCORRESPONDENT, viewed 27 September 2010, from <http://asiancorrespondent.com/jeff-ooi-blog/2006/12/64_of_malaysian_bloggers_are_f.php>

Sifry, D 2007, The State of the Live Web, Sifry's Alerts, viewed 26 September 2010, from <http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html>

Sussman, M 2009, Day 2:The What and Why of Blogging-SOTB 2009, Techorati, viewed 27 September 2010, from <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-2-the-what-and-why2/>