Now that blogging is over a decade old, to what extent have early predictions come true?

 Back in the year 2000 Rebecca Blood wrote “I strongly believe in the power of weblogs to transform both writers and readers from "audience" to "public" and from "consumer" to "creator." “ (Blood 2000). Her wish, desire or prediction for blogging was that it would raise challenge to the “effects of a media saturated culture” (Blood 2000) by giving anyone with access to a web browser the ability to voice their opinions, share their knowledge and uniqueness to with a public audience, to start a conversation, to create, “communicate and connect” (Blood 2000).

Has this happened?

I think its fair to say that there is no cut and dry yes or no answer to this question:

Leaning on the side of YES are the following points:

• Anyone with access to a web browser and who has basic computer / web literacies can start a blog – consumers becoming creators of media
• People can form communities via blogs but also via other forms of social media developed since the time of writing such as twitter or Facebook
• Blogs exist within an online public forum that audiences can contribute to (via comments etc)
• Today there are many different forms of blogging (such as video blogging etc) that enable people to create, share and discuss content

Verging on the side of No are the following points:

• Not everyone can contribute. Approximately only 30% of the worlds population have access to the internet (World Internet Usage and Population Statistics 2011), that leaves 70% without access to the “public voice”
• Of that 30%  - 53.3% of bloggers fall in the age categories of 21 -35 years. Only 7.1% of all bloggers are in the 51+ age group (Blogger Demographics: Who is responsible for the majority of blog content? 2010) – That’s a lot of internet users whose valuable opinions, knowledge and perspectives are not added to the mix.
• Not all blogs challenge a media saturated culture – a good many blogs are owned by media conglomerates, a great many more are filled with advertising, not to mention the sites that sell our information to others.
• The ways in which we express ourselves online are censored by media industries (E.G. using your favorite song in the background of your video blog could get you sued). Furthermore in some countries (such as China) firewalls prevent access to information and free speech against political figures is very much discouraged.

So while we have hit the mark in some places, I tend to agree with Gail that the initial predictions about blogging were somewhat utopian. There are a great deal of issues regarding the freedom to communicate on a public platform that go beyond the technological, that could not have been predicted in the early stages of the blogging.  

 Blogger Demographics: Who is responsible for the majority of blog content? 2010. http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/204370 (accessed 4/1/12).

 Blood, R. 2000. weblogs: a history and perspective. http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html (accessed 3/1/12).

 World Internet Usage and Population Statistics. 2011. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm (accessed 3/10/11).