This is my first post on Blogger

Hello, Blogger. My name is Zhong Min (Rachel), and I am a year 2 student of UClan majoring in BA(Hons) Media Management.This is my brand new Blogger. Actually,it is the first post of my first blog in the strict sense.

Why blog? From my point of view, with blogging emerging as one of the front-runners in today's Web 2.0 era, Blogging has become one of the fastest ways to participate in online communities. What's more, in this converging media world, we may clearly see that audios, videos and pictures etc all the elements could be converged into a blog, or even a post. Blog, gradually, is being contributing to the alteration of the way people produce and manage current news content. In other words, blogging is getting people involved over time in converge world.

Apparently, blog, as a sort of converged platform, is permeating of people's lives.

Being a newcomer for blogosphere, I am seeking free blogging services for the time being. The search results of Google demonstrate that there have been large numbers of free blogging services at present, and as far as I aware, WordPress, Blogger, Yahoo 360, AOLJournals,Windows Live Spaces, Xanga, LiveJournal,Vox.etc are the world's best free, likewise, popular blogging platforms.

Broadly speaking, these free blogs are easy to establish and configure, which only consumes us few minutes to catch the key things, like creating a new account and blog's name, customrizing all those respective settings etc.(Good.2009)

• The advantages (Pros) of having a free blogging service may be to get operational and user-friendly blog tools at a free level, also we could post immediately and frequently, which is able to keep our blog up to date.
• The drawbacks (Cons) mainly fall on the lack of comprehensive and diverse customization features, limited branding, only fair search engine optimization.

There are several reasons why I choose Blogger. First and foremost, it is a free and simple service from Google, and I could start my Blogger through my Google Account directly. Moreover, customizations, free or self-edited html for the templates are all maintained by Blogger as well. Last but not least, Blogger also has good user interface such as featured and popular Gadgets and accessible themes although the options are limited.

Reference
Good,R.(2009). 'Create A Blog: Best Free Hosted Blog Publishing Services - Mini-Guide'. Available at: http://www.masternewmedia.org/create-a-blog-best-free-hosted-blog-publishing-services-mini-guide/. Accessed 28 September 2009

• This post was written by Zhong Min. You can contact me at MZhong1@uclan.ac.uk