What Brings Users to Blogs?

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?"

Comments

Re:Visiting Slashdot...

[eln]

No they don't.

Some people speak merely to hear themselves talk

[PrescriptionWarning]

You know, the kind of person that keeps on talking without really even thinking about what they are actually saying. It is my belief that the same kind of logic can apply to a digital format. Friends do not let friends blog.

It's about the commenting

[c0d3h4x0r]

My suspicion is that most users of sites like Slashdot are attracted to the site not because of original news content but because it offers a competitive forum and an opportunity for basking in the public spotlight. Young males eat that shit up. Give them a chance to post comments to hopefully accumulate good reviews and karma, thus establishing on online reputation, and they'll go for it. Not really that different than MMORPGs, if you think about it.