Blogging Types and Communities

Google Image: the Blogosphere

Types of Blogging

There are many types of blogs found on the web which can be classified according to style, format, topic and audience. Based on Wikipedia.org (2008), blogs are categorised as follows:

• Personal
• Corporate
• Question Blogging
• by Media Type
• by Device
• by Genre

On the other hand, author and media analyst, Margaret Simons has thoroughly defined blogs into nine different types. According to an interview on September 25, 2008 from ABC.net, Simons states that blogs can be classified as:

• Pamphleteering
• Digest
• Advocacy
• Popular Mechanics
• Exhibition
• Gatewatcher
• the Diary
• the Advertisement
• News

Wikipedia.org has classified blogs based on the type of content and the way the blog’s content is delivered or written (Wikipedia.org 2008). However, Simons classified online sites as blogs and not merely on the nature and content of the blog. Her listings are hard to comprehend as it is very complicated. Personally, I prefer the listings made by Wikipedia.org because I distinguish blogs based on content and audience.

Blogging Community

According to Nancy White (2006), there are three types of blog based community:

• One blog centric community – a community is established around the primary blogger.
• Topic centric community – community occurs between the blogs around a shared interest
• Boundaried community – collections of blogs hosted on a single site or known as social networking

The blogging community that I will be discussing on is boundaried community. An example of a boundaried community is Facebook.com. Facebook.com is a social networking website that enables members to register and join the community. Additionally, Facebook.com has many functions of a boundaried community such as blogging, group forums and instant-messaging system built in it.

Example: OSIXNINE (fashion-based group)
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Example: Members of the group
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Reference

‘A taxamony of blogs’ 2008, ABC.net, viewed on 10 November 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript

‘Blog’ 2008, Wikipedia.org, viewed on 10 November 2008, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

White, N 2006, ‘Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?’, The Knowledge Tree, viewed on 10 November 2008, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community