What Brings Users to Blogs? 143
Billosaur writes "The Center for Citizen Media Blog has an interesting overview of the Collaborative News Survey 'Hype versus Reality', detailing the results of a study done by Hsing Wei from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government on why users are attracted to collaborative news, commenting and blogging sites. Among the conclusions of the study are that people who use these sites are 'mostly young and male, especially those who visit technology-related sites, looking for 'a fix of unique, informative fun,' and 'filling in the blanks' left by traditional news sources. Or is it just because it beats working?"
Visiting Slashdot... (Score:3, Insightful)
Make your voice heard. (Score:4, Insightful)
If they're wrong (in your opinion) or leave out important facts - too bad, they don't care about you. In a blog/comment arena you can interface directly with the author and flesh out the details, inaccuracies, or corroborate their work.
Community = Good.
Slashdot (Score:3, Insightful)
After all, who needs reliable news outlets when you can get all your news pre-filtered by people just like you?
Interesting Study (Score:2, Insightful)
However, it could be that they are classifying blogs differently, ie. tech journals as blogs, or personal blogs, when they do their study.
Slashdot is better than a blog (Score:3, Insightful)
And it serves exactly the same purpose: The need to SAY something and have people read it, write lengthy diatribes about something nobody really cares about but still, people will read it.
And unlike conventional blogs, I know people read that junk I write. They mod me down.
Re:It's about the commenting (Score:2, Insightful)
- Toby
Simple (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:beats working (Score:2, Insightful)
That's why they pay you at 1/10 rate.
KFG
I remember the daze... (Score:4, Insightful)
why visit a blog? (Score:2, Insightful)
2: Because it's run/written by someone I know personally or respect.
Those reasons are, although (2) is evolved a bit, the exact same reasons why I would read a newspaper, a book, or a leaflet.
The medium has changed, and analysts feel they need to redefine the same old impulses using new terminology. People don't change that fast. They barely change at all. All that changes is the world they live in.
People like a constant supply of new 'content'. Not everyone requires that it be high quality, the key is 'interesting'.
When I was a teenager this was supplied by hunting through second hand bookshops for old sci-fi books. Now teenagers search the web for interesting stuff to view. It's *exactly* the same thing, with less dust.
Who Responds? (Score:3, Insightful)
My theories (Score:3, Insightful)
2) Some think they are good writers (and aren't) and enjoy writing.
3) Some like to read and can differentiate between 1 and 2.
4) Some who like to read can't differentiate between 1 and 2.
5) Some enjoy the interraction.
6) Some like to get obnoxious and argue with everyone. See 2.
7) Some can learn something.
8) Some think they know everything. See 6.
Re:beats working (Score:2, Insightful)