What in the name of Marx is a blog?

when we are thinking about new media we must avoid the pitfall of what in marketing has become known as technological myopia. New media phenomena do not only change the existing media landscape, but are also expanding it, collonizing spheres of life that previousl were not mediated. Blogs must be understood in both aspects: at once they are transforming existing conventions of journalism, but at once they are drawing activities that previously were not mediated into the internet: processes like discussion, opinion leadership and so on (the fact that most blogs rely on reporting second hand information and opinions invites the application of the theory of two-step flow of communication). Perhaps we should look at media in an abstract sense, as that which is in between and thereby connects. What blogs are bringing in contact are conventions of traditional journalism on one hand and processes of interpersonal communication on the other. It is this interaction that would be most interesting for research. Claiming that blogs democratize communication misses the point, because blogs only mediated a sphere of communication that used to not be mediated.