“Blog” Is Not a Dirty Word
Your idea of a “blogger” might be a dirty, rage fueled fan fiction writer or a mother of two DIY-ing Xanax in her spare time. Or it might be us, your friendly neighborhood NYU Local writers. And honestly, you’re not technically wrong about any of those things.
But “blog” represents much more than that.
Part of what make the internet so amazing is its diverse content. If blogs were only basement dwellers or only hard-hitting news, the web would be SO BORING. Not to mention, blogs have created safe havens for people everywhere. People today have access to information that they never would have had access to before from people whose voices we would never have gotten to hear without the internet. As a result, we are so much more aware of the world. Although things like fake-news websites get to claim “blog,” there’s also an abundance of dignity in the word.
When the internet gained momentum and people began writing online, “blog” was “weblog.” These little logs were typically the work of one or two authors. Soon enough, multi-author blogs were created and entire staffs needed to be hired. Everything you find on NYTimes.com, Vox.com, and NYULocal.com is — by definition — a product of a multi-author blog.
Seeing Local in the same category as the New York Times probably seems like a false equivalent. But in terms of status as a “blog,” the two are matched. “Blog” suffers from an unfortunate negative connotation, as if the word something to be ashamed of. Calling Refinery29 a blog isn’t an insult but a callback to what started online publishing in the first place: simply disseminating information online.
Journalism is an incredibly tough industry to gain traction in. And online, it’s even harder to separate yourself from the hobbyist and into the same category as publications like Slate, for example. It’s natural to want to escape “blog” and its connotation of being a bit infantile. However, if the content is honest, enjoyable and original, it should speak for itself. If it’s not, it won’t matter what you call it.
What else can you call it anyway? It just so happens that there is no direct synonym for “blog.” I Googled it. Runners-up include: “online publication,” “online journal/newspaper,” “electronic newspaper/magazine,” and “electronic publication.” All of these imply news that is also or once was in print. That just isn’t true for so many websites. Truly online media has no other perfect noun except “blog.”
“Weblogs” have taken so many different forms over the years. Twitter and Tumblr are homes to micro-blogging. Whole multi-author blogs, like Buzzfeed, are making millions of dollars. Claiming the word“blog” shows respect to the internet for revolutionizing media by making it so accessible. “Blog” looks to the future of news and recognizes that it will be diverse and it will be heard.
