Mukul - The two main differences seem to be that blogging is a form of self-publishing (which used to be called vanity publishing once upon a time), and that bloggers are directly engaged with their readers in a way that columnists writing for newspapers are not. I should clarify that I’m not opposing dead-tree journalism to online blogging: most newspapers have an online presence, but while this new medium is beginning to change the nature of newspapers, their form and content are still primarily shaped by their newsprint avatars.
If a column in a newspaper is rather like a speech, an entry or post in a blog is the opening gambit in a conversation. Newspapers have always had a Letters to the Editor section, but that section isn’t a newspaper’s reason for being. It has its circulation figures, its profits, its advertising to assure it that it exists and is read. On the other hand, bloggers need people writing in, regardless of whether the blog publishes the comments. When no one writes in, a blogger is likely to begin to feel like a ghost in spite of what the page-view meter tells him. A blogger needs comments to reassure him (or her) that he exists.
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