Blog was declared word of the year by the Merrian-Webster dictionary in It is an abbreviation for weblog, a term firstly used in 1997.

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Derrick Shields
5 years ago
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1 Blogging

2 Blog was declared word of the year by the Merrian-Webster dictionary in It is an abbreviation for weblog, a term firstly used in In mid-1999 the shortened word appeared in a sidebar of a site and soon the first sites to offer hosted weblog tools arrived.

3 A blog is a web application which allows the user to enter, display, and edit posts at any time. It is a way of getting content onto a web page (content-management system). Many people use blogging as a kind of personal diary and add posts daily. The posts appear on the site in chronological order, identified by date and time.

4 Blogs have been used for different purposes, as a personal diary, on one hand and as a corporate blog, maintained by an institution to inform people of its activities. They can be multi-authored and interactive, encouraging feedback about the topic of the blog.

5 There are many regular blog readers and as a consequence blogging communities emerged, with exchanges that have similarities with the ones of asynchronous chatgroups. Differences from chatgroups: They are usually controlled by a single user, who manages the content of the sites, while in chatgroups anybody can start a new topic.

6 They lack the spontaneous interactivity of chatgroups and rely on links to other sites. Links are an important feature of blogs and some of them consist only in a long list of links to particular sites. Other blogs consist of current and archived messages, each with its permalink (static address).

7 The distinctive feature of blogging is due to the way the software combines the editorial flexibility of a personal web page with the dynamic interactivity required when there are so many potential connection points. A blog is not only a diary, the presence of the links places it within a network of related content.

8 Links allow a site to be more present and consequently to get more authority. The personal element and the absence of central controls, made blog attractive to the ones whose personal opinions could have found difficulty to get into the public domain. The medium facilitate online presence, that s why now all kinds of people can contribute to present issues.

9 Blogging can combine journalism elements, advertising, public relations, propaganda and it s an easy way of gaining access into public opinion and getting feedback. Many kinds of linguistic activities are covered by the notion of personal blog. The diary, narrative account of events in a blogger s daily life, has been the most popular and it has got the most distinctive linguistic character.

10 It can include opinionated and creative writing but they are potentially accessible to anybody. It is possible to restrict the circulation of a blog, as in the case of friendblogs. Someone sends his blog to his friends and then in their turn they send it to their friends, but it is not really possible to control all the recipients of the message.

11 A blog can deal with many different topics, but there are many blogs restricted to a single subject domain. Some of them provide only a list of sites on a particular topic. Sometimes it is also possible to send personal contributions, this a peculiarity which makes it similar to the asynchronous chatgroups. The language used is usually a mixture between standard and non-standard English.

12 As it is impossible to see anything in written English which had not been through a standardizing process (editing, proof-reading), blogging (apart from corporate blogs), in Crystal opinion, gives the opportunity to analyse written language which did not have editorial interferences.

13 Instant messaging In Crystal s opinion each method already analysed to exchange messages has got its limitations: Chatgroups are real time exchanges but they have usually a membership of anonymous participants. A blog can be used for a small group of users but it is not real time. s and text-messaging are not real time exchanges, due to the inevitable lag existing between sending and receiving.

14 With the instant messaging (IM) became possible to have a real time conversation between only 2 people. The technology emerged in 1996 with ICQ (I seek you) and now there are many different IM systems available, MSN/Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Messenger. People must share the same system to use them.

15 Open IM systems are also available, they enable people to combine contacts from different networks. The main feature is the immediacy of contact with a named group of contacts. The list tells you the status of these contacts. You can chat with one or more persons at once. Emoticons can be added to the message.

16 It is possible to send files, play games, sounds, send messages to mobile phones and switch to telephone communication. Some systems allow people to extend the contact to people they don t know. Users can post their personal profile for their IM screen name which can be seen only by the persons listed in their contact list. A blocking feature allows them to control who can communicate with them.

17 To see and communicate, people must be logged on to their service-provider at the same time. Advantages of instant messaging conversations: 1. Each participant knows that the other is present. 2. In telephone calls the interaction starts with some social rapport (phatic functions) before the topic is introduced. 3. It is a silent conversation.

18 Limitations: 1. For lengthy interactions, is a more convenient medium. Software constraints may preclude the sending of a very long message. 2. You cannot edit your message if you sent it. 3. Issues of security.

19 Instant messaging presents similarities and differences from chatgroups. The length of conversational turns is similar to those in real-time chatgroups. In IM there is an increased level of intimacy between participants. Chunking a typical feature of IM is the way participants break up single messages into individual chunks (in chatgrops chunking causes loss of coherence other people answer to messages in the meantime).

20 In IM it is possible to chunk messages and experience no problems of coherence because the conversation usually takes place between 2 participants. Problems can be easily resolved thanks to a nearly simultaneous feedback. It is important to stress the difference in familiarity between chatgroups members and IM users.

21 Chatgroup users are usually anonymous and even when they are recognizable thanks to the use of the same nick, their mutual knowledge is limited to what is manifested in the chatgroup. On the contrary, IM users know each other and rely on that shared knowledge. As a consequence IM users are less explicit in their conversations and make more assumptions.

22 There are many first and second-person pronouns in IM interactions, while in a chatgroups they should be qualified with a name. As in chatgroups, there are misspellings, no capitalization, no punctuation, but with some differences.

23 Due to the increased level of intimacy, IM participants write in a more informal and idiosyncratic style. Participants know each other so they do not need to conform their language to a particular style. In chatgroups the language is more standardized as the interests of the participants make the language move in one particular direction.

24 VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol, must be considered among the situations described. It allows to make a standard telephone call. Crystal believes that the Internet version of the telephone call will have consequences on language. For example the ritual of naming will no longer be needed. Furthermore the webcam will add a further dimension.

Chatgroups synchronous groups

Chatgroups synchronous groups In a synchronous group, interactions take place in real time. Some systems facilitate communication between two users, others between several users. Words are displayed as