Assignment 3

Question 1



1. Blogger - Mail & Guardian

Blog site belongs to - Though Leader

Writer - Various writers eg Bernard Allan Robin Booth, Sentletse Diakanyo



2. Blogger - The Times

Blog site belongs to - Times Online

Writer - Anjana Ahuja



3. Blogger - The Sport Blog

Blog site belongs to - Guardian

Writer - various writers eg. Sean Ingle, Malcolm Heyhoe, Barry Glendenning



4. Blogger - South Africa

Blog site belongs to - South Africa Worldcup Blog\

Writer - Various writers eg. Naeem, Daryl



5. Blogger - Anthony Kaufman

Blog site belongs to Indiewire

Writer - Anthony Kaufman



6. Blogger - Sujewa Ekanayake

Blog site belongs to Indie Film Blogger Road Trip

Writer - Sujewa Ekanayake



Question 2

Anjana Ahuja is a female of Indian origins and is currently expecting a baby. She holds a PHD in Space Physics which she obtained from the Imperial College in London. According to her online profile she is a Physics Professor at Bristol University in the UK. She writes articles as well as provide commentary for The Times and has been doing so since 1994. She mainly focus on the impact that science, medicine and technology has on society. She qualifies to be an excellent blog writer as she writes articles about science, medicine etc. and brings it home to society and not only for the professionals in that industry. Needles to say that her topics is of great interest. It involves not only the benefits for and of the world of science but also how it affect the consumer, the patient, the ordinary man on the street on a day to day basis. Her writing style and choice of articles is what most readers value and look for.

Blogging as a new form of media

The word blog is a shortened version of weblog. A blog can be defined as a certain website created and maintained by an individual. The individual can post comments, describe certain events as well as to post graphics and videos. A blog can be used in a combination of images and text and as a link to other blogs. There is a number of different types of blogs, eg. personal blogs, which is like a personal journal kept by the individual or a corporate blog, which is normally for business purposes. Many bloggers engage in participatory journalism, which is also known as as public, citizen, democratic or street journalism. Participatory journalism refers to the fact that the members of the public play an active role with regard to collecting, preparing and analyzing news. This form of media includes people's articles, even though the individual may or may not be a qualified journalist. The form of news might be some local event which occurred and was not published in the mainstream newspaper or the individual could post onto blog a factual error which was published in the mainstream newspaper. This manner of distributing news benefits the reader in the sense that the reader can read whatever news which is made available and can post his or her comment with regard to the article immediately. Newspapers such as The Argus or Die Burger, includes articles which the qualified journalist writes. The Editor decides whether the article is of newsworthy material and what the title of the article should be. This indicates that, in the case of The Argus or Die Burger, Independent Newspapers decides what the reader should have access to read and what not. Blogging allows people to decide for themselves. They can decide what is newsworthy and important to them which i think is a very good and effective form of media.