Item 2-A

 Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits to the  community

Almost a million new blogs are opened everyday on to the internet. It could range from food blogs to lifestyle blogs or even fashion blogs to photography blogs. Blogs have grown so big that they are even used for educational purposes.

(source: Edublogs.org)

Based in Australia, Edublogs provides a platform for teachers, school districts, and students to engage with each other. 

'We believe in the power that blogging can have to transform the educational experience of students and have seen first hand how Edublogs have increased ownership of learning, engaged students and become a source of pride in classroom.' - Edublogs Team.

Judging from how blogs have moved from entertainment purposes to educational purposes, the amount of people owns a blog must be growing.

(source: Technorati.com) 

The pie chart above shows the amount of bloggers worldwide. Jon Sobel (2010) claims that over half of the respondent plan to blog more frequently because of the significant growth of mobile blogging, 43% are planing on expanding the topics they blog about and 48% of all bloggers also agree that blogs will replace the old media in providing people their news and entertainment. According to Blogpulse stats, the total identified blogs in the blogosphere are 168,390,479 and the amount of new blogs created in the last 24 hours is 106,599. 

Blogging trends vary from different countries. According to Gaman (2007) the blogging trends in Malaysia are lifestyle blogs because 28% of Malaysia Top Most Influencial Bloggers write about their lifestyle while the other 16% writes about politics and another 16% writes technology. However in Asia including the Middle East, the Bloggies have announced the best Asian web blogs goes to IEatIShootIPost written by Leslie Tay. He writes about Singaporean foodie and video blog. Therefore, the current trend in Asia and Middle East are food blogs.

 According to Giles Dawe (2009), Malaysia's prevalent blogs are Kenny Sia by Kenny Sia, LiewCF by Liew Cheon Fong,  Hot Screensaver by Jack Neo, 5xmom by Chan Lilian, and Sabahan by Gaman.

Top bloggers in Malaysia:

1. Kenny Sia - A lifestyle blogger.
2. Liew Cheon Fong - A technology blogger. 
3. Jack Neo - A fashion, technology, food, cars and Malaysia's life blogger.
4. Chan Lilian - A personal and political blogger.
5. Gaman - Financial blogger. 

These blogs are beneficial to the community in Malaysia because they work as a platform for people to engage and share their thoughts with each other. Readers also look up to these bloggers for advice and vice versa.  According to Kristi (2009) blogging helps create a community that wants to listen and share with you their opinion. 

References:

1. State of the Blogosphere 2010 Introduction, Technorati Blogging, n.p, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/>.

2. 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia, Sabahan.com, Borneo, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://.www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/>.
3. The 2010 Bloggies best Asian Blogs Nominees are, CNN International, n.p, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/none/chat-bloggies-2010-best-asian-blog-nominees-380787>.
4. Most Influential Bloggers in Malaysia, Best Blogs Asia, n.p, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://www.bestblogs.asia/influential-bloggers-malaysia.php>.
5. Benefits of Blogging - Building a Community, Kikolani.com, n.p, viewed 18 August 2011, <http://kikolani.com/benefits-blogging-building-community.html>.