THE BEGINNING of the 21st century brought along with it, other than major developments in varied fields, a fresh new way for people to share their opinion and experiences globally, in the most effective manner possible. At the behest of the far-reaching prowess of the Internet, blogs or weblogs to be precise surfaced to offer to the people the perfect platform to share their thoughts, generate comments and discussions through them. Professing all the characteristics of an online journal or diary, blogs enjoyed much popularity owing to the feasibility with which people could post their comments on specific issues, discuss with other users, upload pictures from memorable trips, and so on.

Justin Hall, an alumnus of Swarthmore College began personal blogging in 1994 and is considered as one of the earliest bloggers in the world, while Steve Gibson is possibly the first professional blogger after Ritual Entertainment hired him as a full-time blogger in 1997. Peter, an avid blogger from California considers blogging the best thing to have happened to him since it gives him the opportunity to showcase pictorial journals of his several travel experiences.

The impact in the home turf, although a wee bit late, was much the same as hordes of enthusiasts had been seen getting hooked to popular blog sites like Blogspot, Blogit, Blogger, as well as numerous other blogs under famous banners. One of the biggest inspiring factors for people to become bloggers was the freedom to write on just about anything on earth. That having been said, it brought about the indulgence of all sorts of contributors, who much about wrote on issues that ranged from national or international importance to topics that were downright trivial. Most of the blogs written on these sites were related to issues that were of general interest for the netizens. For instance, there have been blogs on issues like the Jessica Lall murder case, which brought about many readers and created great awareness among them.

However, in spite of this quality, readership became quite a problem for the bloggers because of a variety of reasons, including the lack of popular and common phrases in these blogs that go on to determine their ranking on various search engines. The scenario has changed a lot in recent times, and these blogs, which flood numerous sites, hardly have any readers now. It therefore, would not be wrong to say that almost every blog has merely one reader today – the blogger himself/herself.

Pretty much at a time like this, a new phenomenon emerged in the form of citizen journalism, which provided a much-needed breather for online scribblers who wanted to voice their concern and share their opinion with others on more serious grounds related to society, politics, economy, etc. Unlike bloggers, citizen journalists do not enjoy the liberty to view their articles the way they have written them, since their stuff goes through the snipping (read editing) department, which rephrases the works making sure not to hurt anyone’s sentiments. What’s more, some of such articles might not even see the light of the day if they don’t fulfill the criteria of authenticity. In other words, the articles written by citizen journalists that make their way to various news sites are refined, hold helpful and authentic information, and bring in a great deal of readers due to the application of popular phrases that rank high on search engines.

No wonder, citizen journalism poses an indomitable threat to blogging and makes its way to replace the later as the next big thing in 2008. Personally, I have no qualms as to which is more popular, as long as the purpose of creating awareness and sharing information on significant issues is served.