Blogging: A Genre

     While creating this blog I started to think, how do you describe a blog? What genre does blogging fall under? I used to think that blogs were purely just personal journals put out onto the web to share your feelings with the world. Though there are many of these types of blogs out there, I have been increasingly aware of other types that are either on a specific topic, or more for educational purposes.

      There are many ways that people describe blogging. Cornelius Puschmann wrote in a journal article describing corporate blogs: "corporate blogs are written by the
employees of a company, delineating them from self-employed or freelance writers
who make their living by blogging and are thus also “business bloggers” in a
sense". These types of blogs are on the professional level and thus entail more proper tone and formatting. There are two main types of blogs: personal and business. These categories all have similarities though, for example, they are social and build off other peoples knowledge.

     The social aspect of a blog is critical to the definition of blogging. On an online journalism blog, they defined blogging as, "Blogging, above all else, is conversational. It is social. It is networked. There are two key features to the blog: links, and comments. Fail to include either, and you’re talking to yourself". Blogging is beneficial to someone who wants to learn more about something because it is all about expanding off of others blogs, journals, and books. The blogger takes what they have read and expands on it, thus building their knowledge on the subject as well as their readers knowledge. These transactions between the reader and writer of the blog also helps build relationships, thus allowing them to grow closer and get to know each others interests.

     As well as using comments and links to build relationships, the formatting of a blog is crucial to how a reader connects with the blogger. The posts are ordered chronologically and usually build off of each new post. This is important to create fluidity within the blog, helping the reader connect with the writer better. Unity between posts will help further define what the blog is about, and why it was created.

     After reading numerous articles, I have come up with my own definition of blogging. Blogging is a way for a writer to portray what they want onto an open platform that has the opportunity to collaborate with the reader to grow on a particular topic. With ever expanding technology though, the definition of blogging will always be changing. As Christina Harview quoted Rebecca Blood from her book We've Got Blog,"The web invented weblogs, but they are still being defined by the people who make them". That is what is so exciting about blogging. New things will come along that will completely change how we as writers and readers go about creating a connection with each other. In the end though, blogging cannot simply be defined as a certain genre, but as a genre in itself.