Blogging it is. Newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, internet and any other media you can think of is subject to umpteen rounds of editing, slashing and finally the end product which we get, might or might not reflect the opinions of the author. Blogging on the other hand is completely free of editing and reflects the true opinions of the writer. Maybe because of this, blogs are extremely popular and so many people seem to have a blog. Take the case of the recent unrest in Pakistan, when the political parties deemed it fit to ban popular talk shows and all channels which had anything to say against them. It was then that the youngsters took to blogging to vent their angst against the government. (It is a different issue that later even blogger was banned but at least it gave them a medium to express themselves).

Blogging is one of the easiest ways to air your views and get people to read it without caring two hoots about expurgation or being politically correct or worrying if you have the facts right or not. Even when you don’t have the facts right and someone has a problem with that, you can always say that blogs are personal and if someone has a problem with what you have written they can always choose to ignore your post (which brings us to another aspect of blogging. Are “personal” blogs are really personal or is the term “personal blogs” a misnomer? That is a question we will try to answer in our future articles). Be it tech blogs, photo blogs or miscellaneous blogs, all of them give you a clear picture of what the writer is trying to say.

With television, the creativity of the director or actor is killed by constraints like time, money and the acerbic tongue of critics. Even in newspapers each and every printed line (even letters to the editor) is subjected to at least one round of editing. Magazines too are extremely choosy about the kind of articles they print, taking care not to offend people who take care of them etc.

TS Elliot put it brilliantly when he said “Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers”. It is extremely difficult for a writer to slash his/her own work or do away with something unnecessary because frankly from his/her point of view nothing seems unnecessary. It is here that blogs help a writer showcase their true creativity be it in terms of writings or photos or poetries. Blogs as mainstream media are becoming increasingly popular and ought to be encouraged as they reflect the true pulse of the nation.

Do you think blogs will replace the mainstream media? If so, how soon do you think this will happen? If not, why do you think blogging cannot replace the mainstream media. I will love to hear from you.