thin and THICK blogs

I want to address and try to categorize the content of blogs. Blogs generate content at different levels. Some report on external news items, which can be of a specific kind: new gadgetry in the http://us.gizmodo.com/, technology and science in www.slashdot.org, political gossip in http://www.wonkette.com/, music in http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/, sports in http://www.arseblog.com/, or global(ised) culture in http://www.global-culture.org/. These are basically 'feed' blogs, which means that they feed into other sources for news. What they add, however, comes in two levels: a first level is the high degree of personal opinion and interpretation that is juxtaposed on the news, and the second level is the structuring of the diversity of information available around the blog author's own 'storytelling' line. These blogs I call them 'thin' blogs. They can be very thin when they are mostly about rearranging external information, or they can become progressively 'thicker' as opinions and other content is added to them.

'Thick' blogs are those where most content is 'new'. Occasional links to other blogs or sites may still appear, but the aim of these blogs is not about reporting on external happenings. This content can be in the form of expert opinion and advice, as in the case of the webdesign blog http://www.alistapart.com and the blog about photography http://www.digital-photography-school.com/, in the form of cooking recipes http://fireinmykitchen.blogspot.com/, personal ramblings about one's life http://www.myboyfriendisatwat.com/, or stories in prose http://www.waiterrant.net/.

The blog you are reading is, under this crude classification, a thick blog, since the starting point are my own thoughts about blogging. A pure distinction doesn't exist, but these two different patterns (starting from external news, or starting from own thoughts) can easily be found. Of course many blogs do not fall into one of the categories, but are rather at the intersection. Still I think it's a useful way to think about blogs, and the reasons for that will come in later posts.

Many of the blogs I refer to, I found them on the 'bloggie award' list for 2007: http://2007.bloggies.com/