Some people have claimed newspapers will no longer exist in ten years – we will all read blogs instead. You are going to read a text about blogs. Before you read, think if blogs are a welcome addition to traditional media or blogging is just a passing fashion.
Read the text and do the following exercises.
Are you a blogger too?
Only a few years ago, a “web log” was a little-known way of keeping an
online diary. At that time, it seemed
like “blogs” (as they quickly became known) were only for serious computer
geeks or obsessives.
This didn’t last long, though, and within a very short period of time,
blogs exploded – blogs were everywhere, and it seemed that almost everyone read
blogs, or was a blogger.
The blogging craze of a couple of years ago (when it was estimated that
ten new blogs were started somewhere in the world every minute) now seems to
have died down a bit – yet thousands of blogs (probably the better ones)
remain. Blogs are no now longer seen as
the exclusive possession of geeks and obsessives, and are now seen as important
and influential sources of news and opinion.
So many people read blogs now, that it has even been suggested that some
blogs may have been powerful enough to influence the result of the recent US
election.
Blogs are very easy to set up – all you need is a computer, an internet
connection and the desire to write something.
The difference between a blog and a traditional internet site is that a
blog is one page consisting mostly of text (with perhaps a few pictures), and –
importantly – space for people to respond to what you write. The best blogs are similar to online
discussions, where people write in responses to what the blogger has
written. Blogs are regularly updated –
busy blogs are updated every day, or even every few hours.
Not all blogs are about politics, however. There are blogs about music, film, sport,
books – any subject you can imagine has its enthusiasts typing away and giving
their opinions to fellow enthusiasts or anyone else who cares to read their
opinions.
So many people read blogs now that the world of blog writers and blog
readers has its own name – the “blogosphere”.
But how influential, or important, is this blogosphere really? One problem with blogs is that many people
who read and write them seem only to communicate with each other. When people talk about the influence of the
blogosphere, they do not take into account the millions of people around the
world who are not bloggers, never read blogs, and don’t even have access to a
computer, let alone a good internet connection.
Sometimes, it seems that the blogosphere exists only to influence
itself, or that its influence is limited to what is actually quite a small
community. Blogs seem to promise a
virtual democracy – in which anyone can say anything they like, and have their
opinions heard – but who is actually listening to these opinions? There is still little hard evidence that
blogs have influenced people in the way that traditional mass media (television
and newspapers) have the ability to do.
Exercises
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Grammar
