News blogs in transition : a critical genre analysis

Abstract

In a context where globally, technology is making unprecedented advancements in the area of communication, this study explores the features of a news blog and comments on how its communicative purposes are achieved via these features. Despite its amorphous and dynamic nature, it is vital to examine the structure and functions of a news blog especially in a time when non-mainstream news avenues are being increasingly sought by readers. In this study, a news blog is defined as a dynamic website that enables the sharing of varied perspectives on news and real-time responses to news in a timely manner by authors who are not necessarily part of a media organization. The method of data selection involved identifying a list of potential news blogs from two credible sites and further trimming the list using a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. As a result of this process, 27 blogs were identified for analysis at the macro level. The macro analysis yielded the following salient features of a news blog: topics covered, blog form, search features, archives, images, links and associations. Subsequently, one post each from three news blogs, Huffpost, Buzzfeed and Business Insider Singapore (BIS), were selected and analyzed at the micro level by utilizing Appraisal Theory. Through the micro analysis, it was found that despite the news blogs’ attempt to present themselves as credible, reliable, objective and balanced by offering different viewpoints, the evaluative nature of posts is used to appeal to the emotions and ideological positions of readers, which therefore reveal their underlying intent to present views with a purposeful slant.