Global PR Blog Week 2.0

By Tim Fischer, Süd-Chemie AG | Blog Initiative Germany
EDITORS’ CHOICE | Challenges of Institutional Blogs

Weblogs - between social convention and technology

Several approaches have been done to assess and define the weblog phenomenon. Weblogs can be described by their social convention, its technology and its structure and content (Fischer, 2004).

This article will assume that weblogs are “a technology, or a social process culminating in an online phenomenon or even an online kind of a diary, if not to say a new form of journalism. The term is as broadly defined as peer-to-peer, to say the least. In fact, a weblog can be all of the above and none of it.” (Dafermos, 2003, p. 27) and that can be anything from a journal to a stream of consciousness commentary or even a full-blown news site. The important features are a steady stream of fresh content and a willingness to link to other existing sites as a raison d’être. Think of the Captain’s log on Star Trek and how it usually served to introduce and frame the upcoming story, and add in a very quick feedback loop. For the most part, weblogs are simple and straightforward. People can publish their thoughts, even for the first time, with almost no training.” (Chromatic, 2002, p. 28). Thus weblogs are more a social convention than a pure technology.

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