|
Re: المدونون السودانيون: دعوة (Sudanese Blogger) (Re: nadus2000)
|
هذا جزء من دراسة اجريتها قبل عامين في ابوظبي عن البلوغز , وهي من اوائل الدراسات التي ناقشت المدونات العربية قبل ان تفتح لها الجزيرة بابا للنقاش
Arab Blogs Analytical study on content and format
Dr. Abbass Mustafa Sadig
Abstract This study investigated the nature and characteristics of Arab blogs that are now spreading among the Internet users in the world including Arabs. Aiming at collecting all available data about blogs in general.
In this paper 378 Arab blogs were surveyed, 30 of them statistically scanned in a period of three months from January to March 2005 . Test of geographical facts indicated a significant gap between countries regarding blog numbers, e.g. whilst there are 120 blog run by Kuwaitis representing 31.7%, 0.5% for Yemen, Sudan and Mauritania each.
Blogs review detected four major types: 1/ A mix of linking and comments. 2/ Personal blogs. 3/ Journalistic blogs. 4/ Photoblogs. -Topics cover different areas out of which 26.7% for general issues of daily live, 20 % for politics, 6% are personal diaries, 50% discusses domestics and specialized topics, 33% comment on issues of regional or international dimensions . -Language study shows that 30% of bloggers use Arabic language, 16.7% use Arabic and English, 3.3% use English French and Arabic, 50 % of blogs are in English. -Format study shows that 56.7% are texts only blog, 36.7% use both text and graphics. 6.7% are photoblogs. - Other results show that 53.3% of Arab bloggers write their entries in nicknames and male bloggers are dominating. All figures and other facts are interpreted in the conclusion of this paper outlined the main characteristics of the content and formats of Arab blogs.
Introduction Before it became popular, digital communities had many forms, including Usenet, bulletin boards and other early web dairies applications such as online diaries and web journals. These applications reflect experiences of linking to pre-surfed websites:" Thus the first web site entitled “What’s new in ’92,” is considered as the first weblog was created by Tim Berners-Lee, who used to keep lists of all new sites as they come online on his personal site". (Blood 2004).
When Geocities opened the Internet in 1996 for everybody in the world to have a free homepage, those who run them add and maintain a constantly updated list of links to other sites. They did not make any commentary about those links and they were not taking the collaborative features of the Internet, but that type of homepages paved the way to a new phenomenon of blogs.
By the year 2000 there are thousands of blogs reflecting the shift from an age of carefully controlled information provided by sanctioned authorities, to an unprecedented opportunity for individual expression on a worldwide scale. Each kind of blog empowers individuals on many levels. (Blood 2000).
On March 2003, the Oxford English Dictionary included the terms blogs weblog, weblogging and weblogger in the dictionary which now used to describe personal websites that offer "frequently updated observations, news, headlines, commentary, recommended links and/or diary entries, generally organized chronologically." (Werbach 2001).
These personal websites also called a blog or a newspage or a filter which refers to a webpage where a blogger- sometimes called a blogger, or a pre-surfer- 'logs' all the other webpages he finds interesting." (Jorn Barger 2004).Between 2001 and 2004 there are three major events that reshaped the way people behaved toward news online. When the World Trade Center was attacked in September 11 2001, the Internet news buckled under the pressure of millions of visitors trying to get updates. Blogs kept information flowing out with many of the bloggers who updated their websites with thousands of visitors posting opinions to make blogs transformed into huge forums that discusses issues relating to international terrorism.
Catherine Seipp described changes in trends of blogs after Sept. 11: "In general, 'blog' used to mean a personal online diary, typically concerned with boyfriend problems or technical news. But after September 11, a slew of new or refocused media junkie/political sites reshaped the entire Internet media landscape. Blog now refers to a web journal that comments on the news often by criticizing the media and usually in rudely clever tones, with links to stories that back up the commentary with evidence." (Seipp 2002).
In early 2002 blogs began to spring up to debate the invasion of Iraq. American right wing used the blogs to advocate the war against Iraq. The Iraq War was the first "blog war". Salam Pax, a blogger in Baghdad described conditions in Baghdad during the war and gained wider readership and became one of the major sources of information of the war (Wikipedia 2004).
The third major event that popularized blogs happened during US presidential election in 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion formation. Both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions credentialed bloggers, and blogs became a standard part of the publicity arsenal "in USA". Blogs also were among some of the driving forces behind in rising assistance to the victims of natural disasters like Tsunami , Catherine hurricane and the earth quake in Pakistan . /////////// //////////////// //////////////////// country by country ....
Others Except a blog from Algeria called Mesothelioma Reporter devoted to mesothelioma and asbestos ,other blogs from Sudan , Algeria , Libya , etc are very limited repeating the same look of other Arabic blogs .
/////////////////
///////////////////////// /////////////////////////////////
Conclusion
It is obvious that most of these blogs based in the Arab Gulf area where the use of the Internet is growing rapidly, while the case is different in countries such as Yemen , Sudan and Mauritania which represent very low blogging.
Local issues of politics, religion and society etc, are touched, but most Arab bloggers depend on Arab mainstream media sources to build content .
Most Arab blogs are mainly written in English indicating that most of those who run them are educated and computer literate people who speak English. The people who read blogs are not different from the bloggers themselves, which means also that certain types of people are communicating with each other only.
Some bloggers have managed to catch the opportunity expressing their beliefs and declare their ideologies, yet most of them hide their names and instead write nicknames. This reveals that legal or de facto constraints on freedom of speech and of the press have a chilling effect on what is expressed online in the Arab region, especially in public forums such as open bulletin boards, chat-rooms and blogs .Thus practicing blogs in this region is not without risk. On February 27. 2005, three Bahraini bloggers were arrested for their political stands, among them a well known blogger called Ali Abdulemam who runs BahrainOnline.org. The research has detected that some Arab blogs are run by none Arab citizens, e.g. Sudan Watch at: (sudanwatch.blogspot.com). Some receive help to run their blogs. This help is not without controversy as disclosed by Nathan Zuckerman who wrote : " Spirit of America CEO Jim Hake raised some eyebrows when he declared that the Arabic-language blogging tool would provide free blog hosting for "friends of democracy", indicated that the site would be willing to host any blog that did not advocate violence or terrorism. As Rebecca Mackinnon noted in her report on the meeting on Personaldemocracy.com: .Many attendees of the Global Voices workshop voiced skepticism at any attempts by an organization to determine who has the right to a free blog and who doesn’t" (Zuckerman 2004).
(عدل بواسطة Dr.Abbas Mustafa on 08-10-2006, 08:18 AM) (عدل بواسطة Dr.Abbas Mustafa on 08-10-2006, 08:42 AM) (عدل بواسطة Dr.Abbas Mustafa on 08-10-2006, 09:12 AM)
| |
|
|
|
|