New Media and Microblogging

Microblogging
Microblogging is a broadcast medium that exists in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregated file size. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links". These small messages are sometimes called microposts. As with traditional blogging, microbloggers post about topics ranging from the simple, such as "what I'm doing right now," to the thematic, such as "sports cars." Commercial microblogs also exist to promote websites, services and products, and to promote collaboration within an organization. Some microblogging services offer features such as privacy settings, which allow users to control who can read their microblogs, or alternative ways of publishing entries besides the web-based interface. These may include text messaging, instant messaging, E-mail, digital audio or digital video.

History
The term microblog was used more widely for services provided by established sites like Tumblr and Twitter. Twitter for one is especially popular in China, with over 35 million users tweeting in 2012, according to a survey by GlobalWebIndex.

There are hundreds of microblogging sites, among the most notable services are Twitter, Tumblr, FriendFeed, Cif2.net, Plurk, Jaiku and identi.ca. Different versions of services and software with microblogging features have been developed. Plurk has a timeline view that integrates video and picture sharing. Flipter uses microblogging as a platform for people to post topics and gather audience's opinions. Emote.in has a concept of sharing emotions, built over microblogging, with a timeline.[citation needed] PingGadget is a location based microblogging service. Pownce, developed by Digg founder Kevin Rose among others, integrated microblogging with file sharing and event invitations. Pownce was merged into SixApart in December 2008.

New Media and Microblogging
As people have developed more of a taste for micro-blogging to update their lives, there are now many apps that try to go into this unique service by creating apps to provide microblogging services. Tumblr and Twitter are both mobile apps and there are increasingly more. Ranging from private to public.

Tumblr
Tumblrblogging service, gives people the chance to publish brief or full-length, media-rich posts using their browser or mobile phone. It's a happy medium between a tidbit posting service, such as Twitter, and a full-fledged blogging tool, such as WordPress or Blogger. Tumblr is aimed at folks who feel they may not have enough content or time to write a full blog, yet still want to write and share links and media.

Each Tumblr user gets their own "Tumblelog," a short-form blog that contains one of six types of media: word posts, photos, videos, quotes, URLs, and IM conversations. Each type of content has its own visual style and corresponding form for publishing. It's delightfully simple, and within minutes you can add a wide range of content. There's also a bookmarklet for your browser's toolbar to post items without having to navigate to Tumblr's home page. Tumblr comes with some pretty advanced options for power users. You can give your Tumblelog its own domain, and even set the length for stories on your RSS feed. There are five themes to pick from, and you can customize the color of every aspect of the interface. If you are integrating Tumblr into your blog or Web site, there's an option to paste in your CSS.

Twitter
Twitter is a micro-blogging platform where users share their thoughts, news, information and jokes in 140 characters of text or less. Twitter makes global communication cheap and measurable. Profiles are (usually) public — anyone in the world can see what you write, unless you elect to make your profile private. Users "follow" each other in order to keep tabs on and converse with specific people.

On Twitter, following someone is not necessarily an admission of friendship, but nonetheless affords interaction and conversation — at least in short bursts.

The first step is to understand and master the vernacular. There are certain words and jargon native to Twitter that you may already have heard in passing. These terms and their abbreviations (in parentheses) are essential for understanding the network.

Tweet: A 140-character message.

Retweet (RT): Re-sharing or giving credit to someone else's tweet.

Feed: The stream of tweets you see on your homepage. It's comprised of updates from users you follow.

Handle: Your username.

Mention (@): A way to reference another user by his username in a tweet (e.g. @mashable). Users are notified when @mentioned. It's a way to conduct discussions with other users in a public realm.

Direct Message (DM): A private, 140-character message between two people. You can decide whether to accept a Direct Message from any Twitter user, or only from users you are following.You may only DM a user who follows you.

Hashtag (#): A way to denote a topic of conversation or participate in a larger linked discussion (e.g. #AmericanIdol, #Obama). A hashtag is a discovery tool that allows others to find your tweets, based on topics. You can also click on a hashtag to see all the tweets that mention it in real time — even from people you don't follow.

Dayre.me
Dayre is the App that helps you blog on your mobile device. For busy people dying to say more than a Note, 140 Characters, or a filtered photo will allow, this is the App for you. Simply post multiple bite sized updates within a day, and hey presto, your blog post is done. Fill days with treasured recipes, cutting edge tech trends, or your young one’s first years and share your personalized URL with friends, family and the world. Share more. Create your story.

Dayre App is a microblogging app for your mobile device, posting bite sized updates whether they are photos, quotes, videos, locations, text etc. It is especially great for those who have busy lives and cannot post long blog posts and just want to make a quick update. Post recipes, quotes, OOTD, makeup, art, inspiration, your lunch, funny moments, work, anything you like! Think of it as all the social networks and blogs combined together into one. Dayre offers many features from stickers, uploading images, videos, voice clips, text at any time of the day and it compiles into a blog entry. It takes the simplicity of blogging and makes it fun and easy for users. It is current available on iOS at the App Store and Google Play for Androids.

9GAG
9GAG is mostly an image based microblog. It was founded in 2008 by Chris Chan, Brian Yu, Derek Chan, Marco Fung and Ray Chan. It has a simple design which makes browsing effortless. It can keep any simple minded user captivated for hours as long as they keep pressing the "J" key on their keyboard (the shortcut to go to the next image). Most of the website's material consists of memes and funny gifs. People can thumbs up, thumbs down, or comment on the image which will determine its place on the site. 9GAG released the app version of the site in July of 2012 for iOS and for the Android later in the year.

Reddit
Reddit was founded in June of 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. It has essentially the same purpose as 9GAG, but it is a bit more challenging to use. Rather than just scrolling mindlessly through pages and pages of funny memes, people share content that isn't just funny, but also to share interesting articles, as well as thought provoking questions. The users are mainly male (72 percent) ages 25-34. Reddit also allows up votes, down votes and comments. Users can earn karma and badges which adds. Many acronyms are born on reddit (AMA=ask me anything, YSK= you should know, and many others). Reddit has AMA sessions where anyone can put themselves up for questioning by the community. Out of the many celebrities as well as nobodies who do these AMA sessions, Barack Obama did one as well! In August of 2012 Barack Obama connected with all the ordinary and unordinary people of the internet community by allowing them to ask him questions. This was the first time that a president did something of this nature. Before the rise of new media only people high up in the political scene or at least reporters had access to ask the president questions.

Issues with Microblogging
There will always be problems with security by posting things publicly online. Privacy is arguably a major issue because users may broadcast sensitive personal information to anyone who views their public feed. Microblog platform providers can also cause privacy issues through altering or presetting users' privacy options in a way users feel compromises their personal information. An example would be Google’s Buzz platform which incited controversy in 2010 by automatically publicizing users’ email contacts as ‘followers’.

In one example of the breaches of privacy between Peter Coffin and Xiaxue, who is an online blogger--Peter attacked Xiaxue about her plastic surgery and the two argued. Things went heated as Xiaxue dug up some dirt behind his fake Japanese girlfriend "Kimi" This is a prime example of how microblogging's privacy is always at risk of being misused because everything is traceable online and findable.