Websites and Blogs

Triggered by the seminal contributions by Vance Packard (1957) and John Kenneth Galbraith (1958), the shift of sovereignty from consumers to producers has been attributed to the producers' domination of mass communication channels. However, modern digital media are not dominated by a few key communicators, and thus enable a voice for the people again. With increasing attention devoted to these media, consumers recover part of their sovereignty by gaining both “share of voice” and “share of attention.” Websites and blogs are the main instruments for consumers to strengthen their communication abilities.

According to Ralf Wagner (2009), Websites are defined as representations of individuals, groups, or organizations within the World Wide Web that are accessible by a uniform resource locator (or URL), using a browser. The Websites can be

• static—presenting text and audiovisual content according to a predefined navigation system—or
• dynamic—customizing the presented content according to both visitors' profiles and visitors' actions while browsing the site.

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One example of an informative blog from an NGO is the Britain-based http://carbonfootprint.com, which allows consumers to calculate their own carbon footprint and learn tips on how to reduce it

Source: http://carbonfootprint.com

Website vendors point to other Websites by incorporating hyperlinks to these Websites. This makes up a network of information. The links can be followed by human visitors and Web bots, which feed the search engines with information about Websites. Because most Web search engines use the number of in-links and the quality of the in-linking Websites for the ranking of Websites, the net citizens control the visibility of Websites and reinforce one another's visibility.

Blogs, or weblogs, are digital diaries on the Web. Consumers can share not only their experiences when using products and services but also their opinions and concerns about issues such as energy production and consumption, for example. Unlike Websites, blogs have typically been associated with individuals—nowadays, however, more and more organizations and companies are setting up blogs to communicate with their stakeholders or to promote their brands and labels—who make up a network by adding other blogs to their blog roll. Although blog rolls and links between Websites rely on the same hypertext technology, they have a different quality. As links can spread throughout the Website, they are typically embedded in a specific context. In contrast, the relations consolidated in blog rolls are highlighted by the fact that they are assigned to the blog roll. The blogger is also free to add links to other blogs or Websites when assembling the content. Moreover, bloggers usually provide one another with a ping as notification that they refer to other blogs, thus supporting community building within the blogosphere.

Blogging is becoming more popular than setting up Websites because some providers offer bloggers maintenance of personal blogs free of charge. Moreover, sophisticated tools [Page 462]disburden bloggers from any programming tasks: blogging allows the participant to focus on the content, whereas maintaining Websites requires technical knowledge of navigation design, file hosting, and so on.

In addition to conventional blogs, special blog types like videoblogs and microblogs are also gaining in popularity. The latter are made up of short messages and can be fed in and read not only by using computers with Internet access but also via mobile devices like cellular phones or personal digital assistants.

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