The Mormon blogosphere (often referred to as the Bloggernacle) is a segment of the blogosphere focused on issues related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The term "Bloggernacle" was coined by individuals within the Latter-day Saint blogging community as a play on the name of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir; however, not all Latter-day Saint-themed bloggers like or use the name Bloggernacle, or even consider their blog to be part of it. Furthermore, not all bloggers within the Mormon blogosphere are Latter-day Saints themselves.
History
On November 23, 2002, the Mormon blogging community became a distinct entity with the founding of the blog Metaphysical Elders. Some component blogs from the Mormon blogosphere's first two years were short lived, however one of its first bloggers, Dave Banack, began his longstanding Mormon Inquiry blog on August 19, 2003. On January 1, 2003, a multi-author blog Mormon Momma launched – a spin-off from the original "Circle of Sisters" column from Meridian Magazine. By the next two years, many multi-author blogs were launched, including Times and Seasons, By Common Consent, Feminist Mormon Housewives, and Millennial Star. On March 23, 2004, due to an article in The Revealer, the writer Kaimi Wenger at the LDS blog Times and Seasons noticed that the Jewish and Catholic blogging communities had adopted names for themselves. In a blog post titled "The Nameless Mormon Blogosphere", Wenger sought to remedy this situation and asked for suggestions for a name. Christopher Bradford posting under the name "Grasshopper" suggested "Bloggernacle Choir", the shortened version of which gained wide approval. "Bloggernacle" is a term that has been used commonly by LDS bloggers.
The Latter-day Saint apologetic organization FairMormon features a website and blog; Jeff Lindsay began a Latter-day Saint apologetic blog entitled Mormanity in 2004. A Mormon "litblog" named A Motley Vision was founded in 2004 by William Morris. During 2005, several LDS-themed podcasts entered the Bloggernacle to augment Latter-day Saint blogging with audio programming; these included podcasts produced by church affiliated sources and an independent series, Mormon Stories Podcast, produced by John Dehlin (who also founded the blog Stay LDS and the group blog Mormon Matters).
Stay-at-home mothers who are LDS and who blog are known to comment occasionally upon their religion; two such writers whose blogs have become popular with non-Mormon audiences are Stephanie Nielson, of the blog the NieNie Dialogues, C. Jane Kendrick of CJane Enjoy It, and Jana Mathews who blogs at Momlogic as "The Meanest Mom". (A spoof on this genre of blog is the blog "Seriously, so Blessed!", written by an anonymous Utah woman.) In 2009, the religious news site Religion Dispatches ran a story about the phenomenon of Mormon mommy blogging, which its author believed arose in part in response to Elder M. Russell Ballard's 2007 commencement address at Brigham Young University–Hawaii, which had lauded efforts by Mormon faithful to share their beliefs through such means as blogging, citing an online post by "Bookslinger" (pseudonymous author of the blog Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon).
Mormon videographer Seth Adam Smith began blogging in 2004. Some of the Bloggernacle's more prominent blogs are named after defunct Latter-day Saint publications. For example, Messenger and Advocate, a blog written by Guy Murray, was named after the LDS publication of the same name published 1834–1837 in Kirtland, Ohio. Keepapitchinin, a Mormon history blog written by Salt Lake Tribune columnist and independent historian Ardis Parshall that she founded in 2008, was named after a sporadically published humorous newspaper published 1867–1871 and pseudonymously written by three sons of LDS apostles, George J. Taylor, Joseph C. Rich, and Heber John Richards. The blog Millennial Star was named after The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, published in England 1840–1970; and the LDS history blog The Juvenile Instructor''' is the namesake of a publication intended as a catechism of Mormonism printed in Salt Lake City, Utah 1866–1930.
Salt Lake City, Utah's The Deseret News began producing a separate, LDS-themed newspaper insert on January 10, 2008 named Mormon Times. The website version of this insert features readers' feedback. The Mormon Times reporter covering the Bloggernacle is Emily W. Jensen. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' own internet presence is substantial, and former Church spokesman Michael Otterson's blogging contributions featured prominently in the LDS blogosphere as well. Linescratchers, an LDS contemporary music scene blog, also debuted in 2008.