Blogging

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INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

According to the non-profit, non-partisan Pew Internet & American Life Project (PIP), 32 million Americans read blogs during the mid-2000s. Short for Web log, a blog is a one-to-many, Web-based form of communication. It is similar in many respects to a personal Web site, online journal, or diary that readers can respond to, and often includes links to other places on the World Wide Web. Effectively bringing together people that otherwise would be separated by the boundaries of politics, geography, and time, blogs are 24/7 soapboxes that people use to express their opinions, complaints, and musings on any conceivable topic—in chronological order.

Blogs have been called everything from personal broadcasting systems to glorified electronic dictionaries. As Francine Fialkoff wrote in the April 1, 2005 issue of Library Journal, "While blogs can disseminate news from many sources, they also can generate news and be news, too. They reflect tremendous energy, often creating niches for and drawing together likeminded readers. As with any written words, however, in their immediacy, blogs can make mistakes."

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

In January 2005, Lee Rainie, director of the non-profit, non-partisan Pew Internet & American Life Project (PIP), issued a memo outlining the scope of blogging during the mid-2000s. According to the memo, which provided the findings of two PIP surveys conducted in November 2004, blog readership increased 58 percent in 2004. Among Internet users, 27 percent indicated they were blog readers, up from 17 percent in February 2004. This placed the number of American blog readers at 32 million. In addition, 7 percent of U.S. adult Internet users (8 million people) have created a blog or Web-based diary. Additionally, 12 percent (14 million people) have posted comments or other material on another person's blog.

The Blogosphere

The online collective of blogs is commonly known as the blogosphere. This virtual space has been referred to as a modern-day Wild West, where authenticity and transparency are highly prized. The blogosphere even has its own unique terminology. For example, bloggers are people who post information to blogs, while blogging is the actual act of creating or posting to a blog. By contrast, blog readers are people who read blogs but do not usually post information to them.

The aforementioned Pew Internet & American Life Project memo provided interesting information about bloggers, as well as blog readers. According to the memo, Pew began surveying Internet users about blog creation in 2002. While a mere 3 percent of users had created blogs in June of 2002, this number increased to 5 percent in early 2004 and 7 percent in late 2004, marking what some believe to be the beginning of a strong growth trend. Pew indicated that 57 percent of bloggers are male, and 48 percent are under age 30. Fully 70 percent have broadband Internet connections, and 82 percent are considered veteran Internet users who have been on line for six years or more. In addition, 39 percent have college degrees and 42 percent have household incomes of more than $50,000.

Pew revealed that while blog readers, as a group, are more "mainstream" than bloggers, there are similarities between them. For example, blog readers tend to be males, young, well educated, and experienced Internet users. In 2004 Pew indicated that blog readership was increasing at an above average rate among dialup users, people aged 30 to 49, minorities, and women.

There are other key terms within the blogosphere. As writer Del Jones explained in the May 9, 2005 issue of USA Today, flaming is when bloggers "post indelicate responses and react with incivility." In their joint 2005 report, Trust "MEdia" How Real People are Finally Being Heard, public relations firm Edelman and business intelligence solutions provider Intelliseek defined several other blogging terms. Astroturfing refers to phony grassroots efforts by agenda-driven organizations that pay people (unknown to others) to say positive things about their cause or organization. A burst or bursty happens when, after being mentioned in a blog, a person, phrase, or issue is suddenly catapulted into awareness for a brief moment. Finally, comment spam refers to efforts by spammers to weave the same types of unsolicited material that is circulated via e-mail into blogs.

Within the blogosphere, blogs exist within every conceivable category and niche. Because of their broad range, compiling an exhaustive list of blog types is virtually impossible. Generally speaking, blogs can be grouped within several broad categories. In their 2005 report, Edelman and Intelliseek suggested a taxonomy with the following categories: general consumer blogs; focused consumer blogs; credentialed news blogs; A-list, high-traffic blogs; corporate or B2B professional blogs; and marketer-sponsored blogs.

One general note is that blogs can either be authored by one individual or by a group. The latter, called groupblogs, involve co-authors. Closely related to blogs are Wikis, which differ from blogs in that anyone (not just the author or authors) is allowed to edit content that has been posted.

General consumer blogs are written by common, everyday people and cover the good and bad aspects of every conceivable lifestyle and consumer issue. These types of blogs tend to be highly personal, and many observers have criticized them for being of little interest to anyone but the author and those within his or her immediate family or social circles.

As their name suggests, focused consumer blogs also are written by everyday people, but tend to zero in on a particular interest area. The sheer scope of these focused blogs is enormous. For example, the eatonweb portal lists 154 categories. Beyond common categories like business, relationships, religion, science, and sports, some of the more interesting categories were archaeology, archivists, caravanning, fun, gadgets, handwriting analysis, healing, homeland security, linguistics, live role play, macrobiotics, peace...

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