Classification of blogs & opinion

The ever growing blog phenomenon causes the differentiation and classification of blogs. There are so many varieties of blogs on the World Wide Web which cause the many ways of segregating it. Roger von Oech from Creative think differentiates it into four simple types. Table as below:

1.       Distraction blogs are very much ‘all about me’ blog or a personal diary. Eg: http://niaangel.blogspot.com/ (my personal blog)

2.       Archive blogs are usually motivated by other’s expertise or passionate pursuit of those subject areas. These people want to share what they know in hope that it could benefit others. Eg: http://www.lollipop26writes.com/

3.       Conversation blogs often leaves room for others to comment and contributes ideas as it is not all information but there are questions for audiences to participate. Eg: http://www.blogherald.com/2007/07/20/do-you-kill-the-blog-conversation/

4.       Democratic blog usually helps in changing the social dynamics and are motivated by their envisioned future. Eg:  http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/

Besides that, from a media perspective(Madhavan. N 2008), the classification of blog can be divided into eight types.

1.       Sanity blog- personal diaries help make sense of inner confusion.

2.       Identity blogs- pastime, for fun, engages the world.

3.       Vanity blog- blogger whom love to talk about themselves, unless they are very good, they are back to considered as sanity or identity blogs (http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/ )

4.       Humanity blog- social commitment & causes are promoted,(http://unwantedgirlchild.blogspot.com/ )

5.       Theme blog- blog on topic and create value in the focus on a theme.( http://eoid.org/)

6.       Professional blog- help engage community and shape thoughts (http://www.tompeters.com/ , http://mediascribbles.blogspot.com/)

7.       Corporate blog- promote corporate missions and objectives (Google, Microsoft)

8.       Project blogs- help promote books, project, events (http://khayaldarpan.blogspot.com/ )

To identify the types of blogs, I prefer to only take in account of the style and the audience of the blog as in blogosphere, there is no specific format required for blogging and topic may be misleading sometimes.  Below taxonomy of blogs is summarized from the required reader. (Simons. M 2008)

1.       Pamphleteering blog- political, social movement (individual/group of Indi)

2.       Digest blog- tend to point or to summarise or to collect material from elsewhere, often usually in the mainstream media, but also from other blogs.

3.       Advocacy Blog- pushing a particular point of view on a particular issue

4.       Popular Mechanics blog- fascinating collection of information on how to do stuff, with mechanics and how things worked and so on

5.       Exhibition blog- vanity publishing, maintained by craftspeople, artists, writers, and they bring their work to a wider audience

6.       Gatewatcher Blog- keep an eye on the media, gatekeepers

7.       Diary blog- social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace and so on, are taking over that function.

8.       Advertisement blog- commercial companies flogging a product.

9.       News blog- break news

In my opinion, there are few similar types of blogs for example the personal blog/diary while many of them overlap each other. Simons used more terminology words to describe/name the type of blog, this is in order that the reader could adapt and to know that the word existed. On the other hand, my findings of classification were simple and straight forward. One type of blog that Simons did not include is the conversational blog which I felt that it is quite important these days as audiences are constantly interested in interactive media. Interactive media makes a blog more interesting as all different kinds of people around the world are allowed to comment and share their thoughts which produce a discussion. This brings people together due to their interest group and help to expand their social network.

Referencing

1. Hanskins. T 2007, different motivations for blogging, viewed on 19 April 2009, <http://growchangelearn.blogspot.com/2007/03/different-motivations-for-blogging.html >.
2. Madhavan. N 2008, Taxonomy of Blogs--A Media Perspective, viewed on 19 April 2009, <http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/madhavan-73965-taxonomy-blogs-media-perspective-journalism-digital-publishing-nanopublishing-citizen-portals-june-7-news-reports-ppt-powerpoint/>.
3. Oech. R.V 2007, a taxonomy of blogs,  viewed on 19 April 2009, <http://blog.creativethink.com/2007/03/a_taxonomy_of_b.html >.
4. Simons. M 2008, Towards a taxonomy of blogs, viewed on 19 April 2009, <http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0>.

5.  VanFossen. L 2007, is your blog a conversation blog or answer blog?, viewed on 19 April 2009, <http://www.blogherald.com/2007/07/27/is-your-blog-a-conversation-blog-or-answer-blog/ >.