The Mail & Guardian Online has created a "Blogspot" where readers can publish their own blogs.
Weblogs or "blogs", a form of online journals, are reported to be flourishing worldwide, with up to 8 million "bloggers" in the US, and a great deal more who regularly read these blogs. These personal blogs are run by anyone from experts in their fields to political groups and teenagers.
Matthew Buckland, editor and manager of the Mail & Guardian Online, says the phenomenon has raised interesting questions about what constitutes journalism on the Web, because blogs effectively allow almost anyone with a computer and an Internet connection to publish their own stories or articles.
"We resisted jumping into this at first and have monitored the trend for some time, but we believe the phenomenon is revolutionising online publishing, providing an important forum for readers` opinions. The concept of blogging is a perfect fit for the kind of readership that the M&G Online attracts," says Buckland.
The Mail & Guardian Online is the second South African online publisher to implement blogs. The first was M-Web, which has 591 accounts, 142 of them active.
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