Posts filed under 'Research'
A new survey on blogging released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that only 34% of bloggers consider themselves journalists…
76% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to document their personal experiences and share them with others.
64% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to share practical knowledge or skills with others.
“Blogs are as individual as the people who keep them, but this survey shows that most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression,” said senior research analyst Amanda Lenhart. “Blogs make it easy to document individual experiences, share practical knowledge, or just keep in touch with friends and family.”
“Much of the public and press attention to bloggers has focused on the small number of high-traffic, A-list bloggers,” said Associate director Susannah Fox. “By asking a wide range of bloggers what they do and why they do it, we have found a different kind of story about the power of the internet to encourage creativity and community among all kinds of internet users.”
July 21st, 2006
The U.S. State Department has an issue of eJournalUSA (March 2006) called “Media Emerging.” Read it online or download the PDF version. From the “about” page:
Established media institutions—newspapers and broadcasters—struggle to adapt to a new climate, just as media consumers seize their own territory in the information landscape to create a form of participatory journalism.
Experts and pioneers in these changing technologies share their thoughts on the following pages, describing the innovations unfolding and offering a vision of what may lie ahead.
The issue includes an interview with Lex Alexander called, “Readers Make a Newspaper Their Own.” A sample:
Q: What do citizens, with their involvement, bring to your newspaper, your Web product, that reporters and editors weren’t providing in the old journalism?
Alexander: A lot of people know more than we do about a lot of things. The blogs keep readers informed about what we’re working on and give readers a basis for thinking, “Here is another angle that you guys haven’t thought of, or, what you’re looking at isn’t really the main issue; the main issue is over here.” I think it enables readers to have more confidence in the quality of our reporting.
March 30th, 2006
I blogged today about the recent “unconference” on news orgs in Philly over the weekend.
March 27th, 2006
From Center for Citizen Media blog:
I’m giving a talk and joining a discussion this evening at Worcester State College in Massachusetts. If you’re in the area, come on by…
March 15th, 2006
The Wisconsin State Journal recently launched an effort to have their readers vote for stories that should get top billing in their online paper. Barring major breaking news, the top vote-getter appears on page one the following day:
“We recognize the coming transformation in the way people get their news. It isn’t only that the Internet is growing as a source for local news, particularly among younger adults.” Kelley added. “Letting our readers actively participate in setting the news agenda is one step into a new world built around interactivity and conversations more than traditional one-way delivery of news.”
I think the idea is kind of cool, although it would be even cooler if it affected page one on the fly, rather than having a delay and then a screening via the editors. I mean, Google news manages to work this way and it’s not as though really disrespectful stuff turns up at the top of the heap all the time. Usually it really is interesting or pressing news.
February 3rd, 2006
A nifty little emerging online tool called 30 Boxes is going into beta on Sunday. It enables users to share a calendar with other users, even tagging certain categories of calendar items so they get a restricted view.
This tool could be helpful in connecting bloggers, and others interested in citizen media in our area. The connection could result in people getting together in person on occasion, without sponsorship of any particular group or corporation. Certainly other uses could emerge with a really functional, smart shared calendar like this: for the word on the street is that even buddies’ blog posts can be set up to appear in the calendar.
As of Sunday you’ll be able to visit 30boxes.com/blog.
Speaking of getting together, Kelsey sent me an email asking if February 25 might work for our first “Bowling for Bloggers” event in Northampton. Stay tuned.
February 3rd, 2006
When we met last Monday night I mentioned in passing an article from American Journalism Review. It touches on blogging, journalism, opening up mainstream media to anonymous comments, and many other interesting issues:
Surely bloggers paid by partisans in a campaign aren’t journalists, but what about ideologically driven solo bloggers who ferret out information and post it? Are they journalists? “I go back and forth on that,” says O’Brien. “Typically, what’s said in a newspaper is said without name-calling and is based on more than a single source. The bloggers are jealous of you because you guys get press passes and sources talk to you and trust you and you would go to jail for a source. But they do serve some journalistic functions. And they are changing campaigns. If I’m a campaign and I have something to put out, I’m not going to call you, because you’re going to check it out. I’m going to create a fake name account on Yahoo! and dump the item on my favorite cooperative blog, and he’ll just post it.” Not exactly a textbook definition of journalism.
-Heather
February 1st, 2006
There’s a lot of important, relevant information out there to discover about grassroots media and technology issues. What have you run across that you think people should read, learn and discuss?
January 25th, 2006