Reading blogs (and probably posting to your own or a pal's) is probably second nature to you. That's why you're reading these words, of course.
But some new surveys suggest that blogging and blogs have yet to have the mainstream impact their enthusiasts believe they will:
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released March 11 found 56% of 1,008 adults surveyed have no knowledge of blogs. Even among Internet users, only 32% said they are very or somewhat familiar with blogs. Only 3% read a blog every day..
A few days later, the annual “The State of the News Media” survey was released by the Project for Excellence in Journalism based out of Columbia University's journalism school. That report had this caution about the value of news content on blogs:
The blogosphere, while adding the richness of citizen voices, expands this culture of assertion exponentially, and brings to it an affirmative philosophy: publish anything, especially points of view, and the reporting and verification will occur afterward in the response of fellow bloggers. The result is sometimes true and sometimes false. Blogs helped unmask errors at CBS, but also spread the unfounded conspiracy theory that the GOP stole the presidential election in Ohio. All this makes it easier for those who would manipulate public opinion – government, interest groups and corporations – to deliver unchecked messages, through independent outlets or their own faux-news Web sites, video and text news releases and paid commentators. Next, computerized editing has the potential to take this further, blending all these elements into a mix.