Module 3 - Blogs

Blogs

There are many different genres or types of blogs in what is known by bloggers as the blogosphere.  There are business blogs, technical blogs, and political blogs and so on. This site provides a very good description of the many different types of blogs. In my travels across the net I stumbled across a political blog of sorts with a very unique purpose. After reading it I became aware that in fact this blog was quite well known a few years ago.

I will quickly discuss this blog as it had an impact on me and potentially thousands of other readers.  This blog is called “Where is Raed’ and is between two Iraqi-born architects, Salam Pax and Raed Jarrar. The blog was used between December 2002 and August 2004 whilst Salam was based in Iraq and Raed in Jordan. It provides insight into Iraqi life through the primary source of Salam’s accounts of Baghdad daily life and reflective political and social views during the period shortly before and during the US-led invasion of Iraq. Raed’s perspectives are also captured but with less frequency and most based on secondary sources of reported information.

This blog is a particularly good example of how blogging can have an impact. Salam's used this blog to give the reader an insight into Iraqi everyday life during the US led invasion. Salam’s life has changed because of this blog and in fact he in somewhat of a celebrity columnist now in the US and even appearing on Andrew Denton’s ‘Enough Rope’.

My opinion is that blogs are a very useful tool for knowledge. I find them particularly helpful to find information in educational areas, when I buy electronics and even when I want to go and see a movie, I can check to see what people have thought about it. The only drawback to blogs is that not all information can be attributed to a credible source so it is a case of ‘reader beware’.