Some thoughts on why blogging is being recognised, they are an innovative cultural form:-
it’s new
It seems to be live (time stamped posts)
Connected to a network
A blog is also conservative, as the text is attributed to an individual author’s voice, it also generates cohesive narratives, the predictive nature also gives them authority (and easy of use).
The author is the person who does the writing work, a social environment is needed for the author to generate work. The author is also the name in the “by line”. It is also the author that the reader “fills in” when the real author is absent.
Sorry Chris is was getting late in the day and the content was covered very quickly due to time constraints so I missed portions, however you can read the whole paper on the site.
Michael Specht 