blogosphere

The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions. Since the term has been coined, it has been referenced in a number of media and is also used to refer to the Internet.

History

The term was coined on September 10, 1999 by Brad L. Graham, as a joke.^[1][2] It was re-coined in 2002 by William Quick,^[3] and was quickly adopted and propagated by the warblog community. The term resembles the older word logosphere (from Greek logos meaning word, and sphere, interpreted as world), "the world of words", the universe of discourse.^[4][5]

Despite the term's humorous intent, CNN, the BBC, and National Public Radio's programs Morning Edition, Day To Day, and All Things Considered have used it several times to discuss public opinion. A number of media outlets in recent years have started treating the blogosphere as a gauge of public opinion, and it has been cited in both academic and non-academic work as evidence of rising or falling resistance to globalization, voter fatigue, and many other phenomena,^[6] and also in reference to identifying influential bloggers^[7] and "familiar strangers" in the blogosphere.^[8][9]

Proliferation

In 1999, Pyra Labs opened blogging to the masses by simplifying the process of creating and maintaining this personal web spaces. Prior to the creation of Pyra’s “Blogger,” the number of blogs in existence was thought to be less than one hundred. ^[10] In 2005 a Gallup pole showed that a third of Internet users read blogs at least on occasion,^[11] and in May 2006 a study showed that there were over forty-two millions bloggers contributing to the blogosphere. With less than 1 million blogs in existence at the start of 2003, the number of blogs had doubled in size every sixth months through 2006. ^[10]

Today it is estimated that there are more than 172 million identified blogs, with more than 1 million new posts being produced by the blogosphere each day.^[12]

Revenue

In 2010 Technorati study, 36% of bloggers reported some sort of income from their blogs, most often in the form of ad revenue.^[13] This shows a steady increase from their 2009 report, in which only 28% of the blogging world reported their blog as a source of income, with the mean annual income from advertisements at $42,548.^[14] Other common sources of blog-related income are paid speaking engagements and paid postings.^[13]

Blogosphere as a Social Network

Sites such as Technorati, BlogPulse, Tailrank, and BlogScope track the interconnections between bloggers. Taking advantage of hypertext links which act as markers for the subjects the bloggers are discussing, these sites can follow a piece of conversation as it moves from blog to blog. These also can help information researchers study how fast a meme spreads through the blogosphere, to determine which sites are the most important for gaining early recognition.^[15] Sites also exist to track specific blogospheres, such as those related by a certain genre, culture, subject matter or geopolitical location.

Blogosphere as a network of interconnections

Mapping the Blogosphere

In 2007, following six weeks of observation social media expert Matthew Hurst mapped the blogosphere, generating the plot to the left based on the interconnections between blogs. The most densely populated areas represent the most active portions of the blogosphere. White dots represent individual blogs. They are sized according to the number of links surrounding that particular blog. Links are plotted in both green and blue, with green representing one-way links and blue representing reciprocal links.^[16]

DISCOVER Magazine described six major 'hot spots' of the blogosphere. While points 1 and 2 represent influential individual blogs, point 3 is the perfect example of "blogging island," where individual blogs are highly connected within a sub-community but lack many connections to the larger blogosphere. Point 4 describes a sociopolitical blogging niche, in which links demonstrate the constant dialogue between bloggers who write about the same subject of interest. Points 5 is an isolated sub-community of blogs dedicated to the world of pornography. Lastly, point 6 represents a collection of sports' lovers who largely segregate themselves but still manage to link back to the higher traffic blogs toward the center of the blogosphere.^[16]

Merging with Other Social Networks

With the outstanding growth of the blogosphere within the past decade, the blogosphere has developed as its own network of interconnections. In this time, bloggers have similarly begun to engage in other online communities, specifically social networking sites, melding the two realms of social media together.

According to Technorati's 2010 "State of Blogosphere" report, 78% of bloggers are using Twitter, with much larger percentages of individuals who blog as part-time jobs (88%) or who blog full time for a specific company (88%) using "the microblogging service." Almost half of all bloggers surveyed use twitter to interact with the readers of their blog, while an astounding 72% of bloggers use twitter for blog promotion. For bloggers whose blog is their business (self-employed), 63% use twitter to market their business. Additionally, according to the report, almost 9 out of 10 (87%) bloggers currently use Facebook.^[13]

Blogging Niches

Within the blogosphere, several sub-communities have developed. These communities are largely divided by genre. Blogs are often identified by a specific genre or topic, such as travel or politics.

News blogs has become so popular, they have created steep competition for traditional print newspaper and news magazines. The Huffington Post, ranked most powerful blog in the world by The Observer in 2008, ^[17] has become the go-to for breaking news for people around the world. It is only one of the many news blog (often attached to printed publications) that has come to dominate current event reporting.

Political blogs are often tied to a large media or news corporation, such as "The Caucus" (affiliated with the New York Times), "CNN Political Ticker.", and the National Review's "The Corner."

Gossip blogs are also a particular niche that has grown extensively with the development of the blogosphere. This movement can greatly be attributed to the popularity of "Perez Hilton," a celebrity and entertainment media gossip blogger. His blog posts tabloid photographs of celebrities, accompanied by captions and comments. Web traffic to the often controversial and raunchy Perez Hilton site skyrocketed in 2005, prompting similar gossip blogs, such as TMZ, Jezebel, and the Superficial, to gain popularity.^[18]

Food blogs allow foodies and aspiring chefs alike to share recipes, cooking techniques, and "food porn," for others to enjoy. Food blogs such as 101 Cookbooks, foodgawker, Smitten Kitchen, and The Bitten Word serve as a sort of online cookbook for followers, often containing restaurant critiques, product reviews, and step-by-step photography for recipes.

Fashion blogs also became their own larger than life sub-community following the explosive growth of the blogosphere. Fashion-conscious consumers are offered an insider's view into the fashion industry thanks to blogs like Racked, The Cut, and Fashionista. Besides fashion news blogs, street style blogs have also become exceedingly popular. Bloggers like Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist), Tommy Ton (Jak and Jil), Jane Aldridge (Sea of Shoes), Bryan Grey-Yambao (Bryanboy), and Tavi Gevinson (Style Rookie) are are all among a not-so-select group of fashion bloggers who now consider updating their blog a full time job. These style mavens are able to earn considerable livings through advertising, selling their photos and even providing their services as photographers, stylists, and guest designers.

See also

• Bloggernacle
• Customer engagement
• Global Voices Online
• Group Blogging
• J-Blogosphere
• Optics (politics)

References

External links

Look up blogosphere in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Technorati's State of the Blogosphere
• Article on growth of the blogosphere (Nov 22 2004)