It’s always been easier and cheaper to publish online than in magazines or newspapers. Thanks to the net, you don’t need an expensive printing press or distribution network to get your copy out. But now the emergence of blogs has made online publishing even easier.
In many ways, blogs have further democratised online publishing, making it more widely accessible than ever. No major technical expertise is necessary to blog: no programming skills, domain registration, or hosting is needed. A blogger is given a simple content management system, provided by a blogging service or an online publisher, which allows him or her to publish via the web. Blogs are essentially “websites within websites”, which almost anyone can create for any purpose.
So naturally, since bursting onto the scene a few years ago, the blogging phenomenon has grown exponentially. Both Sky and BBC repeatedly referred to blogs during coverage of the tsunami disaster – a sign of its growing influence in the mainstream. And blogging has become more than just a hobby. In the US, the big-name bloggers are making careers of it and bringing in tidy full-time salaries. During the US elections, bloggers were given accreditation along with journalists.
In the same way that we heard compelling first-person accounts from the famous Baghdad blogger Salam Pax during the Iraq war, important stories about the tsunami disaster emerged from the blogosphere during and after December 26. Blogs were first on the scene when it came to eye-witness accounts of the tsunami and its aftermath, beating many of the major news networks.
The Wall Street Journal reports that many TV networks only got hold of what is now the most widely aired amateur video of the tsunami – showing an elderly couple being overpowered by a wave – after it circulated like wildfire via the blog networks.
The tsunami disaster also highlighted another form of blogging, called “vlogging” – which marries blogging and video. In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami there was a rush of amateur video footage posted on blogs by tourists and locals, together with their personal stories.
For this unscripted disaster, tourists and locals were better equipped than journalists to file on-the-spot reports. Tourists were immediately at the scene, some with backpacks containing cellphones, digital cameras and video cameras. If they didn’t have laptops, they would find the nearest internet point to upload their stories and footage to their blogs – which many did.
Blogging sites, including Waxy.org and BoingBoing.net, provided tsunami videos and links to first-hand accounts of the ordeal. It was blogs like these that made the terrible event personal and told the real story on the ground.
Blogs also became valuable networking points, guiding people to emergency phone numbers, emergency websites, and even uniting family members. The UK’s Guardian reports that one Phuket local – left with little more than four litres of water and an internet connection – set up SEA-EAT, the South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami weblog. It was visited by 21,000 people in one day and fast became one of the key online clearing houses for people to share information and contact details.
This is the power of the blog. It was via blogs that people were able to communicate the drama of the tsunami and assist survivors in ways mainstream journalism couldn’t.
Matthew Buckland is publisher of the Mail & Guardian Online @ www.mg.co.za