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Report finds most US blogging seen as self-expression, not journalism

Posted: 19/07/06 By: Oliver Luft

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Most US bloggers do not consider themselves journalists, a report has claimed.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, only 34 per cent of US bloggers considered what they do to be journalism.

The report, based on a telephone survey of 233 US bloggers, found that nearly eight out of 10 US bloggers claimed their posts were creative self-expression rather than a means to get noticed or paid.

More than a third of US bloggers used their lives as a primary topic, with barely more than one in 10 blogging about politics or the government.

News registered as the most popular blog topic with just five per cent of respondents, fewer than entertainment and sport.

Rather than offering a viable alternative to traditional media, the research claimed that barely half of respondents said they undertook journalistic activities such as verifying facts and linking to source material 'sometimes' or 'often'.

Almost half of bloggers also said they never quoted sources or other media directly.

Sixty-one per cent said they rarely or never got permission to use copyrighted material, a problem no doubt negated by the fact that more than half write using a pseudonym.

Pew also estimated that only about eight per cent of US internet users -12 million adults, more than half of whom are under 30 - keep a blog. Yet, it is estimated that 57 million US adults read blogs.

According to the research, US bloggers are evenly divided between men and women, and are more racially diverse than the general make-up of web users, as 40 per cent are non-white.

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united states | internet users | web users | telephone survey |

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