Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Intercom Article-Blogging


Published in the July/August 2009 edition of Intercom magazine.

Reproduced by kind permission.

Even those who do not regularly surf the Internet would be aware of the recent rise in popularity of “blogs” or “weblogs”. A blog is very much like a personal diary or journal that is posted regularly online to be shared with friends or the “blogosphere” in general. Some describe the method of communication as a daily pulpit or your own memo to the world. Blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others. One of the main benefits of this phenomenon is that as there are literally millions of blogs in cyberspace, there are no real rules for running your own; anyone with anything to say or share is able to let their opinion be heard. So while blogs are certainly an excellent way of learning what other people and parishes are doing to improve their parish life or get people involved in their Liturgy why not take the plunge and visit a website and set up your own for yourself or for your parish group? I have recently set up my own blog through this site so feel free to visit the site and pose any questions you may have about the very simple process.

If you would rather see what others have to offer rather than publish your own thoughts, The Deacon's Bench is an excellent site to start with. Written and maintained by a Catholic deacon, the benefit of blogs may be instantly seen. The writer posts on current events both in the Church and the world in general and offers links and information on a wide variety of current subjects. For a more general selection, Catholic Blogs offers updated articles daily from over a thousand Catholic blogs and is a good site to get a general overview of what blogs have to offer. More specifically, the London Times blog on Religion and Faith written by Libby Purves and Bess Twiston Davies  is an excellent source of current information on world religions and trends. The blog is updated at least daily and often features superb pictures and links. Most blogs follow the same format of indexing their subject matter under “categories” so that you can easily search for a topic of your choice and this blog offers a very wide range. Closer to home, the blogs on Catholic Ireland are run by Sacred Space and features nine bloggers, giving a wide range of focus and opinions about current affairs. It also gives very helpful information on RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. This system of subscription features on most blogs and means that you can link the blog to your homepage (for example) with just a few simple clicks and get an instant update when a new post on your favourite blog is published.



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