Personally, I would prefer to use the term 'blog' over 'weblog'. As Conor has already mentioned, the term 'weblog' might be interesting to use while doing a history of blogging or the emergence of the blogosphere, but it feels outdated and doesn't role off the tongue too easily. However, there is also another reason why I would choose to use 'blog' over 'weblog'. Blogging refers to a particular cultural phenomenon which has significantly affected the information societies around us. Blogging is now accepted in dictionaries of urban slang as well as standard usage as a noun and a verb and specifically refers to the larger politics and mechanics of blogging. Also, in technical language, especially within computer sceinces, weblog is still an expression that refers to logs maintained by machines, artificial intelligence and processes about different systems and transactions. An emphasis on using the term 'weblog' might be confusing for an audience because it might suggest that the arguments you are making are also about these kinds of logs rather than the (presumably) social networking sites and digital platforms of expressions that you are refering to. regards Nishant On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 10:05 PM, Ann-Charlotte Palmgren <apalmgre@abo.fi>wrote:
I've received a message that my article about blogging and eating disorders will be published in a Scandinavian journal. At the same time I received a message from the journal's language expert about my use of the term weblog. They are questioning the use and asks why I don't use the term blog. For some reason I have imagined that the term weblog is being used more often in research. Now I'm not so sure about it. What is your impression? Does it matter if I use the term weblog or blog?
Ann-Charlotte Palmgren doctoral student Åbo Akademi University Finland
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-- Nishant Shah Doctoral Candidate, CSCS, Bangalore. Director (Research), Centre for Internet and Society,( www.cis-india.org ) Asia Awards Fellow, 2008-09 # 00-86-21-66130376