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According to Jonathan Yang (author of "Rough Guide to Blogging"), a blog is "a special kind of website", with the main page consiting of "entries, or posts, arranged in a reverse chronological order". Entries are, generally "chunks of text", often with links to other websites, though photos are often included", and they can also "contain audio or video". (3)

Ted Demopoulos, a blogger and a writer, stresses the fact that "A blog may be more interactive than most Web sites, written in a more conversational tone than most Web sites are, and allow for user feedback in form of comments, but it is still just a Web site." (3)

Since blogs were first introduced, [scholars generally place this event around the late nineties, but some disagree, claiming it happened earlier] they have clearly evolved from being solely textual into containing various media such as images, sound and video. Constant innovation and expansion of the World Wide Web has been a major factor in this development; as well as in the exponential increase in the number of bloggers in general. Put an organism in favorable conditions and it will thrive.

In a glossary in the end of her book, Suzanne Stefanac gives a very concise and to-the point definition of a blog, that conflates what Yang and Demopoulous have said in a smooth and precise manner:
Stefanac sees a blog [term "web log" coined by John Barger in 1997, contracted into "blog" by Peter Merholz in 1999] as "an easy-to-update website characterized by dated entries displayed in reverse chronological order. Originally text-based and written in an informal, conversation style, blogs increasingly feature audio, photo and video content."
Stefanac stresses the importance of autors' actions, by including the following into her definition, "Bloggers often link to other blog entries, encourage comments, engage in collaborative tagging schemes, and otherwise contribute to social networks and user-generated databases. "

Now, for some video:

"What is a blog?" (http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=34Rcd12Y5Qc)
This is a video made by Brian Brian of http://www.pajamamarket.com/, a blogger (one could say "a metablogger") who advises small business bloggers on how to make their blogs more effective.
In the video, he reinforces the points made above and provides a visual demonstration on how simple it is to blog.

Everything you need to know about blogging in 4 minutes(http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=9ZdBIX8qfhk&feature=r elated)

A Daily Idea episode dedicated to blogging. Like numerous communication history scholars, the writers of this episode believe that the electronic media (namely, the World Wide Web) took over the world like the printing press once has.

Learn more about this author, Katrissa Singer.
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