Visual factors in constructing authenticity in weblogs

Blogger’s co-founder, Meg Hourihan, keeps another well-known weblog, Megnut.

The basic font here appears to be Verdana (a bit smaller than the other two); permanent content (links, promos, and so on) in this case is on the right. Again, the background is white, though in this case the basic font is gray rather than black, and posts and promos sometimes include thumbnail images. Links to categories (archives, articles, etc.) are at the top in a serif font (lower-case, dark-green), in contrast to other fonts on the site.

These three are fairly representative of the category of weblogs kept by well-known bloggers. There’s nothing here that Jakob Nielsen would disapprove of: clean, modernist aesthetic, limited use of images, nothing which could damage readability or call attention to the designer’s capabilities—that can be linked to if desired.

Public affairs weblogs stay closer to journalistic conventions, in some cases keeping a visual reminder of print text. Joshua Micah Marshall’s Talkingpointsmemo, for example, maintains a news-column appearance and uses a serif font (Georgia, not Times New Roman).

One public affairs weblog which contrasts visually with print journalism is Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish.

Sullivan discusses public affairs from an announced position as a) gay, b) generally Republican though not strictly dogmatic (see a) above). Sullivan, like several of the more prominent public affairs bloggers, is a professional journalist working the weblog genre, and therefore occupies a different position from most bloggers who start from scratch. Content-wise, he sometimes reinforces some of the wackiest ideas of the Bush team, e.g., the notion that the US military presence in Iraq is “flypaper” to draw out the terrorists.
In terms of visuals, the Daily Dish is a dark purplish-blue background with off-white lettering—Verdana again, probably 10 pt. The masthead at top has a self-referential flashing GIF, with links to different categories within the site and a few article references. The wide left column also has discreet Blogger-oriented ads. Left margin is fixed, while right margin resizes—something that shows the site’s tech chops. The weblog’s appearance reinforces its generic difference from print media and their on-line equivalents.

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