Blogging America: The New Public Sphere

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

As blogs have evolved over the last few years, they have begun to take on distinct characteristics depending on audience and purpose. Though political blogs remain the most high profile (and most read), other types of blogs are gaining in strength and visibility. This booka follow-up volume to Barlow's Rise of the Blogosphere, which examined the historical context for the modern blogprovides an examination of the many current aspects of the blogosphere, from the political to the professional to the personal, with many stops in between. Given that millions of blogs have been created over the past five years and yet more come online at an undiminished rate, and given that enthusiasm for both reading them and writing them has yet to wane, it is likely that the blog explosion will continue indefinitely. As blogs have evolved over the last few years, they have begun to take on distinct characteristics depending on audience and purpose. Though political blogs remain the most high profile (and most read), other types of blogs are gaining in strength and visibility. This booka follow-up volume to Barlow's Rise of the Blogosphere, which examined the historical context for the modern blogprovides an examination of the many current aspects of the blogosphere, from the political to the professional to the personal, with many stops in between. Areas covered include the personal blog; the political blog; the use of blogs by various religious communities both for discussion within communities and for outreach; the growth of blogs dedicated to specific geographic communities, and their relations with older local media; blogs dedicated to technical subjects, particularly relating to computers; blogs and business; blogs sparked by video games, movies, music, and other forms of entertainment; and more. Given that millions of blogs have been created over the past five years and yet more come online at an undiminished rate, and given that enthusiasm for both reading them and writing for them has yet to wane, it is likely that the blog explosion will continue indefinitely.

Reviews

[I]n Blogging America: The New Public Sphere, he takes a look at the evolution and proliferation of blogs, important issues they raise, and how they are becoming a force in politics, popular culture, and almost every other sphere of existence. As of late December 2007, the blog search engine Technorati claimed to be tracking 112.8 million blogs. If you find this headache-inducing, Barlow's book can provide relief, both by offering much-needed perspective on the whole phenomenon, and pointing you to some of the blogs most worthy of your attention. * American Libraries *
Having described the media evolutions that led to The Rise of the Blogosphere in his last book on the online world of weblogs (or blogs), Barlow (technical writing and composition, New York City College of Technology, City U. of New York) here attempts a more descriptive account of the phenomenon of personal political blogs as they were in 2007. He first elaborates on the concept of neteracy, the skills and attitudes of communication in the blogosphere, before turning to views of the blogosphere from without and from within and the misconceptions and exaggerations that can be found amongst both. He also presents a comparison of blogs and other communication technologies and concludes with a survey of the heterogeneity of a Christian blogging community. * SciTech Book News *

Author Bio

Aaron Barlow teaches Technical Writing and Composition at New York City College of Technology of the City University of New York. He is the author of The DVD Revolution: Movies, Culture, and Technology (Praeger, 2005) and The Rise of the Blogosphere: American Backgrounds (Praeger, 2007).