Blogs are the more than the traditional homepage, they are, as Adrian Miles (2004) describes “an internet based personal publishing system” that works as a Content Management System (CMS) which permits the administration of information across the entire site. According to technorati.com, there are more than 80.6 million blogs on the internet out of which, 18 are updated every second. However, the impact of blogging in the public sphere now raises questions of power and how these blogs now challenge classical perceptions of power. Due to the fact that blogs can be perceived as the epitome of participatory culture and as Baker and Green (2005) of Businessweek say, blogs are sites of power, does this mean that society and larger corporations have to exercise new mechanisms of control in order to retain the societal ‘balance’ of power? This essay will use food blogs to discuss the issues blogging has raised and suggest that despite the being a new phenomenon, the blogosphere still exercises and responds to old paradigms of power and can be controlled by old systems of regulation.
In lieu of the constant referral to food blogs, a definition for the term would be convenient. A food blog shall refer to a blog that is devoted to the discussion of issues that are food related. As an article from Epicure, a section from The Age, says, food blogging takes the typical journal writing a step further but solely focussing on all things food related. With this in mind, this essay will explore the power dynamics the blogosphere dabbles with by specifically exploring three food blogs, glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com, 101cookbooks.com and vanillagarlic.blogspot.com.
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