According to wiki, a blog (a truncation of the expression web log) is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first).I can then define blogging as the act or process of writing these discrete posts and a blogger as the person who writes them.
Clearly, blogging has transform how information is perceived and transferred in this age but it wasn't always so. I can still remember the age when the news papers and Television were the main medium of information transfer in Nigeria. I won't have time to tell you how blogging outsmarted these medium and is currently the most popular way of getting news mainly because it is real time and information is available on the go(mobile devices).
Despite the advantages of blogs over other medium of information transfer, information from blogs is less believed or less taken seriously because of how information is gotten, processed and transferred. It is synonymous to how scholars rate Wikipedia. Ever wondered why scholars don't take references from wikipedia seriously compared to online standard Journals? Yeah, there are certain ways of doing standard things but while some good things can't be standardized because it will defeat their purpose in the first place, certain precautions should still be put in place.
Since i started blogging years back, my high points in the profession has been during the "fuel subsidy era, during analysis of Nigeria budget, Aluu 4 era, bringing corrupt police officers to the open, exposing police pension thieves, my Ogar at the top era, bringing justice to Adams oshiomole go and die widow , madame aviation removal and other patriotic era". Blogs brings info to Nigerians in ways no other medium has ever done because it makes everyone's opinion counts through comments, and now people who were formerly uninterested in how things were been done are now actively criticizing government actions and demanding for accountability. Sincerely, no other medium could have made those hype the way blogs did but the reputation of blogging seems to be going down everyday with the appearance of many unscrupulous, naive and desperate bloggers in the scene.
It is so shameful and pathetic that someone could sit on their computer and just make up stories about celebrities and political opponents in other to get high traffic or get paid.
This is killing the profession we love so much, the profession where brave people like Linda Ikeji, Stella Dimokokorkus, Bella and your humble Todaysgist stand out.We realize, it is the easiest profession to get into because it is free, no qualifications needed, no training. Just a laptop and an internet connection will do.
As a result of the actions of these same unscrupulous bloggers, search engines are now very strict with blogs often scrutinizing content so much these days. The essence and beauty of blogging was the ease to which information could go viral in few minutes, breaking barriers of distance and time. This beautiful criteria is being eliminated because search engines are being made wiser by the activities of unscrupulous bloggers who are out to kill the profession.
This main aim of this post is to appeal to all bloggers, for the sake of this great profession whose merits far outweighs the demerits, we should consider the info we share and never invent fake stories because we are doing more harm than good.Lastly, i would like to apologize to the celebs whose names and image have been tarnished for the selfish gain of high traffic, it will take more than bad press to kill a good name, just keep being the role models that you are.
Samuel jnr Oghogho(Todaysgist)