Blog vs Journal Comparison

BLOG	JOURNAL
Potentially wide, unknown audience	Audience is determined by author
May include pictures, video, sound,	May include drawings, hand made art
Satisfaction of immediate publication	Choice of whether or not to “publish”
Public	Private
Subject matter usually  limited to a category: cooking, travel, group news, personal experience, family, crafts,	Subject matter unlimited
Searchable with tags and archives	Searchable by memory or skimming
Dependent on electricity	Dependent on paper and pen/pencil
Length  of post is determined more by brevity and pithiness	Length is not a consideration
May be started and abandoned	May be started and abandoned
Easy to compare one blog to another	Usually not comparable unless the journal author is deceased.
Blogs can be written by anyone; you don’t have to be an expert to sound like one.  Making sense is the purpose.	Journals can be written by anyone,  and it doesn’t matter if it is stream of consciousness writing or not.  Making sense might not be the purpose.
As a reader, blogs provide a wide range of accessible articles to follow, as in a magazine.  I follow about 15 weekly.  I always feel like I got a letter in the mailbox when there is a new post.   Some of the blog authors do not know me, some I have met. One of my favourite blogs is written by a 9 year old who is raising money for school kitchens in Malawi. Another is by a music professor who had a major stroke and is writing about music’s role in his recovery. I find I am disappointed when the authors abandon their blogs, because they have “hooked” me into their story.	The only journals I have read are my own. This is generally a somewhat painful exercise in memory. I usually just burn them after a few years, and don’t look at them after writing. The act of writing is important, however, reading what I have written is less so for me.
Uses for blogs: Best for External Notes and instructions for a choir on rehearsals and concerts “how to” do anything A place to collect quotes Reflection on anything Sharing of a sketchbook or art projects Travel diary	Uses for journals  best for Internal Record dreams Set personal goals Release strong feelings Clarify memory Analyse experience