In the new era of individual media, bloggers' influence is growing continuously. Some power bloggers wield as strong an influence as experts and celebrities. 'Power Blogger Alliance' is a gathering which was founded to promote public interest though their powerful influence. The alliance launched 'Power Blogger Times' which is a webzine to celebrate their first anniversary in December. Nowadays, as the culture of blogs has become popular, CBT met Yang Ji-hae, who is a representative of Power Blogger Alliance, and talked about blogs.-ed

 

 

What is the 'Power Blogger Alliance'?

Power Blogger Alliance is literally an alliance. It was not easy to gather power bloggers who are free and characterful. They perform group activities maintaining individual independence. Many bloggers have difficulties in their work after they are selected as power bloggers because they should make more effort to produce high-quality contents and they should decide their direction of activities carefully. I think that it is difficult to make their own decisions, and many power bloggers feel that they need to be organized. The power bloggers from each field seek ways to contribute public interest though their influences. For example, we promoted agricultural and marine products for farms which were devastated by Foot and Mouth Disease. We launched 'Power Blogger Times' to extend our fields in December.

 

What is the tendency of the 'Power Blogger Times'?

Power Blogger Times deals with only the topics of culture which are less troublesome compared with societal or political topics which are in sharp conflict with authority figures. The contents and forms of articles are varied because we take charge of gathering the news and editing. We respect each blogger's individuality. We launched Power Blogger Times by ourselves. We don't need outside assistance because the power bloggers from each field are gathered in our organization. Some power bloggers from the IT field made a web site, and some power bloggers from the language field translate the articles easily into about 5 languages. We write about our own fields, so we are never left behind in respect to our professions.

 

Do you think that people's interests about blogs will continue?

The online environment is changing quickly. A huge amount of information is uploaded every day. Many people want fundamental information from numerous topics. For this reason, the blogs have to develop. If bloggers are not sensitive to the change, they will fall behind. Bloggers can only sustain popularity for two to four years. If the bloggers want to survive longer, they have to develop and lead the change. I think that the future of blogs is bright because the number of bloggers is increasing and they realize that they have to compete with each other and keep up with the demand of the people.

 

By Kim Yu-jin

yj30@cbnu.ac.kr