As previously mentioned, blogs are a difficult concept to define. Many people have struggled to find an all-encompassing definition by which all blogging ’styles’ and purposes may be categorised. Perhaps the concept of the blog may be similar to that of love; whereby its meaning is different to each individual.
Blogs today are different to how they were during their initial emergence, and surely they will continue to evolve in the future. This is largely due to the changes that occur as more people start blogging and networks increase in size reaching wider and more diverse audiences around the world.
In my previous classes, we were taught that a blog should contain certain characteristics. For example they should contain links, videos, and images (though i do understand that we were learning to take advantage of the Internet as a multi-narrative medium), and that they should consist of short entries and various other criteria. However, i wonder, if blogs are so difficult to define, largely because they can harbour a sometimes intense and multifaceted reader-author relationship, why should any rules apply that are not for the sake of protecting the rights of an individual?
Meanwhile, we are watching films about how freedom of speech and the media acting as the forth estate have revolutionised political and legal systems throughout history. Such movement is worthy of admiriation, and often considered necessary for democratic societies. Blogging easily facilitates such activity. On the other hand, in the blogging realm there are exceptional examples of courageous people who are willing to share their lives with the world, an exposure many people fear.
Perhaps the ‘romance’ of the blog should not be thwarted by expectations or categorisations in an attempt to capture a restrictive definition. The blog is malleable, it bends and changes form with the people who create and serve its purpose.
