We Want Media

Here’s a handy reference list of frequently used blog and web terms, collected from a variety of online resources. Please suggest additions that you find useful. Also, the NYU Journalism Department maintains a glossary of web site jargon.

BLOG or WEB LOG A “blog” (short for “web log”) is defined by the free encyclopedia Wikipedia as “a user-generated web site where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.”

BLOGGER One who writes a blog.

BLOGOSPHERE The world of blogs on the web; refers to blogs and bloggers as a collective whole.

BLOGROLL A compilation of links to recommended blogs.

BLOGSTORM When a large amount of activity, information and opinion erupts around a particular subject or controversy in the blogosphere. It is sometimes called a blog swarm.

BROWSER Software programs that enable you to view web documents. They “translate” HTML-encoded files into the text, images, sounds and other features you see.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM Also known as “participatory journalism,” it is the act of citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. Citizen journalism usually involves empowering ordinary people. Local news written by residents of a community that had previously escaped notice of professionals is an example of citizen journalism.

COLLABORATIVE BLOG A blog usually focused on a single issue or subject on which multiple users enjoy posting permission. Also known as group blog.

COMMENTS Readers of blogs often can post comments to posts. Unless the blog owner chooses to delete them, other readers can read all comments posted. Other readers can post their comments after the first post creating an online conversation on a blog.

HTML Hypertext Markup Language. A standardized language of computer code, imbedded in “source” documents behind all web documents, containing the textual content, images, links to other documents (and possibly other applications such as sound or motion), and formatting instructions for display on the screen. Browsers are programmed to interpret HTML for display.

HYPERTEXT A feature built into HTML that allows a text area, image or other object to become a “link” that retrieves another computer file (another web page, image, sound file or other document) on the web.

LINK The URL (or web address) imbedded in another document, so that if you click on the highlighted text or image referring to the link, you retrieve the outside URL.

MOBLOG A blend of “mobile” and “blog.” A blog featuring posts sent mainly by mobile phone. They are often photoblogs.

PERMALINK A permanent link. The unique URL of a single post. Use this when you want to link to a post somewhere.

PHOTOBLOG A blog mostly containing photos, posted constantly and chronologically.

PODCAST Contraction of “iPod” and “broadcast” (but not for iPods only). Posting audio and video material on a blog and its RSS feed, for digital players.

RSS Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. A computer-language format that presents a summary of a web site for easy syndication. RSS feeds allow you to aggregate content from multiple news sources on your blog. With a news reader, you can download and read the feeds in one place.

SITE or WEB SITE This term is often used to mean “web page,” but there is supposed to be a difference. A web page is a single entity, one URL, one file that you might find on the web. A “site,” properly speaking, is a location or gathering or center for a bunch of related pages linked to from that site.

SPAM An abuse of electronic messaging systems that sends unsolicited, undesired bulk messages. While the most widely recognized form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media, such as instant messaging span and spam in blogs.

TAGGING A term used to describe human indexing of material on the web, which in theory makes content more intuitively found and shared. Del.icio.us (pronounced “delicious”) is a popular tagging site.

TIMESTAMP Indicates the date and/or time content was added to a blog.

TRANSPARENCY Transparency implies openness and accountability. Media is transparent when there are many sources of information, much is known about the method of information delivery, and the funding of production is publicly available.

UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD Uploading and downloading are related terms used to describe the transfer of electronic data between computers. To upload is to send date from a local system to a remote system, such as a web site. To download is to receive data from a remote system.

URL Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents on the web. Also known as the address of a web site. Example: The URL for The New York Times on the web is nytimes.com.

USER-GENERATED CONTENT The web has evolved into a realm where people are not only consuming content, but also participating in creating content. The availability of online connectivity and simple content creation tools are putting media power in the hands of consumers. Blogs and other citizen journalism projects are examples of user-generated content.

VLOG A video blog. Content is streamed or downloaded for viewing on a computer, phone or media player.

WIKI (Pronounced “wee-kee” or “wick-ey.”) A web site or web page that allows the user to add content to the page or edit information already located on the web page. Wikipedia is a well-known online “collaborative” encyclopedia.

XML Extensible Markup Language. A computer metalanguage using tags (much like HTML) to define markup languages. It allows designers to create their own customized tags, enabling the definition, transmission and interpretation of data between applications.