A blogger in Turkey writes a post about religious expression and politics. The post is read, discussed and linked to by other bloggers and internet users throughout the Turkish-speaking world.
A graduate student in the US reads the blog, translates it into English and posts it onto another website. Bloggers from Bahrain to Australia then link to the translated post adding their own links and comments along the way.
Through the reach of the global blogosphere, one person’s casual musings have become an international topic for a virtual conversation about democracy, religion and politics.
“Through a blog, a local issue can become a global one,” said Sokari Ekine, a Nigerian who blogs about African women issues at blacklooks.org.
One of the central ideas of globalization is that there is a growing interconnectedness between different societies as well as a greater desire to participate in a "world culture.”
Brought together by little more than an internet connection and a desire to converse, blogs (short for Weblogs) have changed how local and global issues are discussed. And along the way they have become a reflection of this interconnectedness and an increasingly globalized world.
“Today blogs can impact governments and mainstream media,” said Ekine, “and the more people who start blogging will hopefully lead to greater change.”
<b style="">Blogging by Number
Just by sheer numbers, blogging is still a virtual phenomenon. Technorati, an online blog tracking site, just released a report stating that there are more than 71 million blogs being written all around the world.