I had a blog in 10th grade. All my friends did. It was on opendiary.com and we lived and breathed by them. When I came to college, opendiary was out and livejournal.com was in. I guess "journal" does sound more grown up.
This form of expression has been lurking underground for years, hiding under various names. Suddenly, online journalists are terrified because they see this inbred form of expression infiltrating their news sites. The Lawrence Journal World has a daily blog on the front page of their website. But I couldn't find blogs on the front of the New York Times site or the Washington Post site.
Instead, blogs are mostly confined to personal websites and those specifically meant for blogging, like Squarespace and blogger.com. They are entertainment, free time, web surfing. Not news.
I see the value in blogs, I love writing in mine and I really enjoy reading others. I don't, however, see the news value in blogs.
Blogs, open diaries and live journals have always been and always will be entertainment for me. At their best, they're the online eqivilant of an opinion page of the a newspaper. A solid asset, but never a cornerstone. News sites may offer them as a supplement, but they aren't the threat old-school journalists make them out to be. They aren't real journalism.
I believe blogs will stick around. They might change their names or revamp their image, but they will always be interesting and fun. There is no way, however, that they will ever have a solid place in news. They are like dessert. When I finish my news I want something fun and tasty to end on.
And that is the blog.
Great post.