I notice that you say that bloggers tend to be male, higher income, etc. In fact all the surveys I’ve seen show that bloggers are about 50% male, 50% female.

Political bloggers *may* be predominantly male, but even that is controversial. Many female political bloggers feel ignored by the male blogosphere. Linking patterns can obscure the reality: from any webpage, you can see only what is linked. Linking patterns give the impression of a left-wing, right-wing, male, female, diarist, political, or food blogger dominance depending on which weblog you happen to have landed. It takes a concerted effort to break out of the birds of a feather groups that form on the Web.

I would only add to what Rebecca says by saying that if one means “the most-linked, as ranked by one existing blog search tool, political bloggers tend to be…” then that is exactly what should be said. It is a significant clarification.

Current tools for blog discovery being in even greater infancy than blogging itself, we should be attaching caveats to whatever conclusions are drawn by relying on those tools.

I think this is an interesting question because when I saw the title I thought, “Well bloggers are probably a very small demographic of upper middle class young adults.” But I think it is a good point that more adults are becoming internet savvy, and the age at which kids start using the internet is getting younger and younger. Similarly blogs are used for everything from mothers posting recipes to people with PhDs’ opinions about government policy to teenagers posting diary entries on myspace. In this way I think bloggers represent a diverse group of people in America, because the internet is so central to all of our lives. Obviously America is unique in this because as an extremely wealthy nation, most people here at least have some access to a computer. The one thing that does link every American blogger, however, is that they each have opinions, and they each are willing to take the time to put them out there. I think this says that bloggers are a group of people who what to create change.

I believe that male dominance over women in political blogs in very similar to the same reason that there are more men in political careers than women. Men have always been domineering in politics and probably will dominate for a very long time. I think that some women might just be shy or fearful to express their true opinion where so many can see it. I do not believe that bloggers are the “people.” I do not believe that all blogs represent the opinion of the majority of voters. I think that many bloggers might be “out-of-the-box” thinkers. I think that most people would not take the effort to write a blog if it represents the same opinion that most other Americans. Someone with a new idea or a unique opinion about something is much more in need of getting there opinion out in the open than someone who believes the same thing as most other Americans.

I share some of the views that WB1 expressed above — not with the women issue really, but the concept of how bloggers represent “the people”.

I’ve been on the internet for many, many years. Before the blog boom that we have now, people would still do the same type of information and opinion posting that bloggers do today. Back then it wasn’t known as a blog, and I think people posted more because they had an actual reason to. Today, many (if not most) bloggers are posting just to post. It seems that these bloggers are saying “well if I write something I will get noticed,” instead of the old mentality of “this information needs to be out there, so I will write about it.”

In my view, most of the people we see today as bloggers are basically just people craving attention. What’s the best way to get attention? Well, being controversial is one good way. And that is something I see a lot of today in blogs, controversy for the sake of it.

That is not a good representation of most of the populace, and thus bloggers, by and large, do not accurately represent “the people”.

I agree that blogging does not accurately represent the people as a whole. Firstly,Blogging is limited to those of lower socioeconomic stability thus not providing internet accessibility. Secondly, those who are highly respected for their opinion will have more political influence on their blog subscribers. In reference to the article “Are bloggers the people?,” I would say that females and minorities are underepresented in the blogosphere, and their opinions not considered as much as say an upper class white male.

Before reading this informatory blog, I have had little knowledge of blogs and or bloggers. I find the statistics very interesting and this has definitely caught my attention to the new “blog boom” craze. I have to agree with some that bloggers do not necessarily represent “the people” because many are out there for the sake of simply being heard and others to just be controversial. There do seem to be many Political Bloggers that fit the male, higher income, higher educated profile, but at the same time there is a tremendous increase of the blogging craze in young people recently through myspace etc. Bloggers do have the potential to influence others, but I believe they have to put something meaningful that can stir conflict and controversy among others.

I didn’t know too much about blogs either before I started reading these comments. I just thought that it was like forums that people went to to complain or whine about problems in the world. I now know that they are now more than that. I think the reason that political bloggers post comments is that they either want to A) persuade someone into thinking like they do or B) They want to promote a response or action. I did notice that the number of female bloggers have increased as well. I guess the reason for that is a lot of women are affected a lot more than men by the content that is portrayed in the media. For instance, the Tag body spray commercials some women find those offensive.

Ok, I must be totally honest; just like lora2626, I had never heard of blogging before. After reading these blogs, it is like I have been opened up to a whole different world. Although I do not think bloggers represent us, I think it is a great thing. This opens the door for change. Sadly, today there is important news that the media underestimates because they think that the people want to know what celebrity is divorcing who more than they want to know what is really going on in the world. Blogging is one way to get your opinion out there, but it is also a way to read about news that you might not hear about on television. In my opinion, bloggers sort of represent a voice. This has opened my eyes to the point where I will participate in blogging, after all; you never know who is reading them.

After reading and understanding more about bloggers I believe that bloggers are independent American people who have opinions that contrast or agree with every other individual in society. Bloggers represent an individual cause, or a change in the normal way of thinking or acting. Bloggers represent more than just politics, and even though they might not influence politics I think it is important for society to recognize bloggers so the bloggers can feel more uniformed and organized towards a cause. The internet is being opened up to more and more people every day, and with this, the amount of blogs will increase and maybe even the impact of blogs as well.

I don’t believe that statistical information on blogging can be completely trusted because of the unfamiliarty of blogging to so many people. Just like the many people that have posted responses to this bloghave stated, blogging is new to so many people that it has yet to really take off. Blogging is really becoming popluar because of the anonimity that is associated with it; it provides people with an outlet for expressing their ideas without the fear of rejection. It’s also a way for people of similar interets to share and receive insight on certain topics. I believe that, in the near future, we will see blogging really become popular.

According to different posts, it’s been said that men are the more common bloggers, but it’s also been said by one person they found it was closer to being an even percentage between men and women. My question is, “Where does the basis of this information come from?” The content of a website will often be the reason behind the sex and age of a person bothering to view the site, let alone comment on it. I don’t think it can be easily found as to who (whether it be female or male, old or young, etc.) dominates the blog world. Also, another question that comes to my mind is how do we know the sex or age of a blogger? It’s not always a requirement that someone post their age or sex. A blog name can’t necessarily give age or sex away. How can we truly make that determination? One final point, it’s been noted that lower income people don’t have the access to the internet to do blogging, thus blogging is not a fair representation of “everyone”. Who said it was? It seems to me that bloggers are aware of who has the ability to blog and who doesn’t. While blogs are a form of media, I haven’t heard or read anywhere that blogging is claimed to be a fair representation of “everyone“. Perhaps that is a piece of information I simply haven’t come across.

Judging from what I have read so far in terms of blogs, bloggers and bloggings, it does not seem to me that these Internet sites are anything more than an individual’s written thoughts on a subject of interest to that individual who may be a political analyst or just a commentator writing about a high school band’s activity.

In another words, by posting it he invites the same kind of activity from other people of similar interests. It’s possible that motives other than that which would seem to be very innocuous are at play for the purpose of directing or influencing the thinking of other people and this perhaps can best be seen as slanting a supposed report which makes a distorted view of the event reported on when it is not, in fact, true.

Furthermore, it seems to me that we should, as intelligent people, try to ascertain what would be the purpose, or intent, of the information a blogger is blogging. And by its content better gain an understanding as to whether it is just a reported incident or if its purpose is to some how influence thinking and behavior.

I think it is hard to establish whether or not a blogger is female or male. No matter where the blog is ( political or personal) this is the Internet age where people can conceal their true identity. Maybe there are more men on political blogs, or maybe they are girls pretending to be men in order to get their point across with out being judged as female or male. So I really don’t think there is a real sense of who is blogging and who is not.

While sitting in class, I was realizing that it was only a few weeks ago when I actually learned about a blog on MySpace.com. Since I came across blogging on MySpace, I would think the majority of bloggers would be young females. After reading this article I learned that they are white males. Most blogs that I have seen are just people’s feelings or random things such as what they did and how their day was boring. I never realized that bloggers can to try to influence others regarding politics and other subjects that are taken seriously. I think this whole blog bandwagon was just childplay.

I also think that it is hard to gain statistical information when it comes to blogging because of how easy it is for people to conceal their identity. And isn’t that the point for some bloggers? One of the reasons that I post blogs is so that I can express my opinions and get feedback on my views without anyone knowing who I am. Blogs are also great because you can find out various viewpoints on any topic that you might be interested in. I’m really anxious to see whether blogging becomes more prevalent in people’s everyday lives and the various ways that it is used in communication.

I think there is no real way to tell if a blogger is male or female, young or old, democratic or republican, etc. because many people would rather not give their real information out. If I had to guess I would say that the percents of whether the bloggers are male or female are relatively even. I say this because males and females are so different and there are so many topics that can get blogged today.

Mainly females will go for the cooking, kids, etc. topics, while men will go for the sports, and cars. But, I think both men and women pretty much evenly blog on politics and things going on in the world today. Therefore, I think it is impossible to tell one way or the other on who blogs more, it is mere opinion.

Wow, I truly had no idea that blogging was such a big part of the political world. The only blogging I have ever known of was dance teams posting comments about certain people on other teams and these blogs were not so nice or positive. I am not really sure what all the hype is about blogging and why it is important about who blogs. To me it just seems to be people posing their opinions on a subject and whether the person is male, female, Caucasian, or African American everyone has their own opinion on the subject. To me bloggers just represent people who want to state there opinion on a particular topic or subject. Now that I am aware of what a blog really is, I will take the time during the next presidential elections and see how the blogs are part of the political world. I will also focus on those who are the bloggers and how there comments make a difference.

Although I am not usually an active participant on blogs, I believe they serve an important purpose. There are not too many places where you can anonymously ask a question or throw out an opinion and get truthful feedback from people like yourself. Or are they like you? You can never be sure who is responding to you. But maybe it is a positive concept to get responses from individuals who are not your equal. Where else can a housewife have a say on political concerns brought up by a man who would not give her a second thought it not for the anonymity. I find it hard to be able to know who is posting on blogs. Let us be honest, we like the idea anonymity. With anonymity there is the power of true freedom of speech and equality. So I guess in my mind the literal question remains, “Who are bloggers?”

What is a blog?

Blogs are shared on-line journals where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies. Blogs are not limited to politics. MySpace is a great example of a nonpolitical blog, which introduces the blog to America’s youth. Women share recipes over the Internet, and men blog about sports.

To say that political bloggers “tend to be male, higher income, higher educated,” is just based on the fact we live in a male politically dominated world. Women are coming to the forefront in politics and I would not be surprised if our next president is Hillary Clinton.

“Political bloggers tend to also be political activists…”. When does someone give an opinion on politics with out trying to persuade someone one way or another? There is not much I do not agree with. This blog is right on the money.

I agree that the highly educated white upper-class male pretty much dominates the political blogosphere today, which isn’t surprising because they have dominated American politics throughout the country’s history. However, I think the subject of a particular blog influences who posts on it. For instance, if a group of mostly men are posting blogs about being pro-life, this could inspire an influx of women to post, especially if they do not agree with what is being said.

Today, bloggers only represent a small portion of the American population. It should be interesting to see (as technology advances to being more of a vital part of our daily lives) if political blogging becomes more widespread with minorities and women.

Bloggers obviously represent themselves. They are people with opinions, and just like the “man-on-the-street-reacting-to-the-news-story” may have opinions that may seem bizarre or not relative or aggressive, as do bloggers. And just like some people jump up and down behind a news camera for attention, there are people who post just to be noticed or to create attention to themselves.
Political Bloggers–or at least those regulary ranked highest by existing “influence” and “popularity” metrics–in America tend to be male, higher income, higher educated.
This is simply a mirror image of who is most influential and popular in politics in the “real world.” It was also stated that there is a surge in the number of young bloggers especially, young women, and I believe this is so because a post is gender, age, racial, etc. free. America’s youth is realizing that they can express their views and not feel inferior through blogging. In this way, blogs are able to reach more people because more people feel comfortable or are able to post their thoughts free of personal criticism.
Bloggers are simply America’s citizens: the educated, the well-informed, the crazies, and the ignorant.

I feel that bloggers are represented by more technically advanced and computer literate people. This group of people tends to consist of people of younger ages, between 20 and 30, however I feel it can apply to anyone.

I do agree that blog sites such as LiveJournal and MySpace have made blogging more mainstream and more available to a larger group of people, including younger people of both genders.

I do feel that as we continue to move into a more technologically advanced world, bloggers will begin to represent the population as a whole, more and more, and what we see now is only the beginning of that.

I thought this was a really interesting question because before I read this discussion, I honestly didn’t know the first thing about “blogging”. After I read the title to this blog, a few thoughts immediately came to mind. Obviously bloggers don’t represent most of the population. This is true because in order to post a blog one has to have access to the internet. The group of internet users can then be broken down to an even smaller group of people because not all internet users care enough to take the time and effort to comment on some matter. Therefore, I agree with most of the main points of the blogger profile. Political bloggers may affect other people’s opinions because the people reading and responding to certain blogs are interested in that issue. Also, political bloggers who make comments on blogs are going to have strong opinions for or against an issue, therefore, will be influential to others agreeing or disagreeing with their opinions.

Blogging has surprisingly become a powerful tool of communication in the 21st century. Whether you have a PhD, or you are a teenager in high school, blogging allows for an anonymous way to express your views on an issue. This new way of expressing yourself has unleashed a whole new means for a global internet community to come together and share a common discussion ground. With that said, you cannot believe everything you read on the internet. When bloggers present facts or percentages in their posts, it is important that the information is verifiable in some way to show its validity. I believe the use of blogs is a great way to discuss an issue of importance due to its world wide availability, which allows anybody from anywhere in the world to easily contribute their opinion on the issue at hand. The internet is a rapidly growing, powerful tool for mass communication.

I think that it is very hard to generalize bloggers and their tendencies. The Internet age is making it even harder because people won’t give their personal information and their social status to random people. I assume that we can only generalize male or female in certain blogging environments, for example female generally blog in cooking sites and males are more actively blogging in football sites. I also believe that bloggers own higher education and as well have better access to Internet. But I totally disagree with author about political bloggers and their influence to the audience. I think that people are not taking bloggers seriously and I think that stranger can never influence other person only by posting a comment.

I agree with the opinion of others in that blogs do not represent the people as a whole. I definitely agree with the “blogger profile” and that women and minorities may be under-represented as of yet. I think that this will change as we see more and more young people actively taking part in myspace and things like that as many already are. As these younger generations grow up with these mainstream blogs, they will be introduced to more important blogs that discuss real world problems. As this takes place, I think we will start to see a more accurate representation of the people in the future.

I predict that the population will grow as the subjects of differect blogs grows to discuss a broader range of issues. Simultaneously, the blog “audience” will become broader as will the “blogger profile” thereby showing a more accurate representation of the people.

I also agree with most of the comments on this topic. I feel that bloggers more accurately represent middle-aged, educated Americans. Of course there are some older and younger bloggers out there, but I feel that the majority are between 20 and 35. I disagree with the polls that there are more men bloggers than women, even in political blogging. My reasoning for this is simple, “Who likes to gossip more than women?” I am not saying that blogging is all about gossiping. I am just saying that women are more likely to get on the internet and express their views about a topic. I also think that women feel like they are being listened to in a blog. I know that society claims that men and women are equal, but we all know that women are still ignored entirely too much.

I am guessing that blogging will be dominated by women in the future as well. I just cannot fathom more men than women ever signing on to the internet to discuss their point of view.

Before reading this post, I believed that the majority of bloggers were teenagers and young adults who just used blogging to get things off of their chests. Their blogs were simply diary entries that were meant to be read by anyone who had interest in what they had to say. I had never heard anything of political bloggers, and it surprised me to see that the majority of them were higher-educated males.

While I now see that there is a wider range of bloggers out there, I still do not believe that bloggers represent “the people.” I know plenty of people, including myself, who never or very rarely participate in blogging. I have ideas and opinions, I just keep them to myself, or I express them in other ways. Bloggers represent the people who want their opinions heard and discussed upon, but they don’t represent “the people” as a whole.

Blogging seems to be a very recent concept, and is certainly not yet used by many people except by highly educated people. I belive that the statistic about men with higher incomes being more into blogging is true. But, since it’s relitively new, and also because more women are obtaining higher incomes than before, this statistic will quickly change. I also believe this statistic is changing because of recently created blogs for younger people, such as myspace, as mentioned. Men may have previously been the ones to be more interested in politics and business statistically, but I believe this to be changing very quickly in today’s society. Soon this statistic will not be entirely true, and I believe it will be more equally balanced between men and women.

I agree and disagree with Rebecca on a few things. First of all, I do not believe that there is any real difference in the amount of female and male bloggers. I would consider myself tom be on the cutting edge of the Internet, and through my experiences, I have come to find that it almost evenly divided these days. In the early days of the Internet, females were rare, but today, they are just as prevelant as men. Blogging is something that is incrediblty new. There are just as many female bloggers as there are males. It is still much to early to speculate at where it is heading. The author mentioned “MySpace” blogs and political blogs. These are two completely different things. The “MySpace” blogs are usually very informal, and just act as an e-journal for the user. The political blogs are more of an informative and formal read. I do not think its really fair to compare the two. Blogging is just one of the new, up-and-coming things that we will all have to watch.

I did not know very much about blogs a week ago so doing research on them was very interesting to me. After reading many different types of blogs I have to disagree with the opnion that there are more men bloggers than women. It may be true that more men have blogs directed towards politics but because of this it is not fair to say that there are more men bloggers. While researching online I found there are many woman support blogs for breast cancer, and women in abusive relationships.I also disagree with the statement that blogs are used mainly by upper middle class americans.Many young students that attend public schools have found out about web sites such as The Facebook or MySpace where they can gossip and keep up to date with their blogs. Theses students may be from a lower class but they still have access to a computer where they can update their blog everyday just like anyone else.Blogs that deal with politics are trying to make a strong statement but there are many blogs that all differet types of people use just for fun.

Before I read the post, “Who are Bloggers? Who Do Bloggers Represent?”, I had little knowledge about who is partaking in this new craze of blogging. I barely even knew what blogging was. I agree with the post about how bloggers are not necessarily a good representation of “the people” due to ethnic, economic, and educational circumstances. I believe most bloggers are between the ages of 15-30 and come from middle to upper class families. I think blogging can be used to distribute information in many influential ways and in the future could become one of the most common forms of communication. Blogging also allows a variety of people to voice their opinion through the internet, whereas in the past this was not as readily available. Another area where Blogging is being used is in the classroom. Blog sites are starting to be used in college classes, which gives students opportunities to participate in classes through the internet. Blogging allows anyone to be able to voice their opinions through the internet, which I think will entice many to follow this new trend of blogging.

Blogging is a new concept that has taken the internet world by storm. A variety of people have latched on to the new trend. I, personally, don’t agree with some of the other comments which say that only highly educated people are using blogs. This is the case with political blogs, of course, but the “world” of blogs is so vast that it ranges from young teens to older, more educated adults.

I do agree that there is a higher percentage of men with higher incomes and a higher education when it comes to political blogs only because the political make-up of America is dominated by men, those having higher incomes and educations.

The blogs used for mere entertainment among teens such as MySpace, LiveJournal or Xanga are a totally different field when it comes to defining who the “bloggers” are. Time will be our only tool in determining the demography of who bloggers actually are because there is no telling where the blogging world will head within the years to come. I think the boundaries are limitless.

When discussing blogging, I’m not really sure that the bloggers of MySpace and political bloggers should be categorized together by any means. These are two very different ways to blog that attract two very different types of audiences. Many young bloggers of MySpace have MySpace webpages for the mere idea of networking, not to spread an idea and hope for feedback. Also, many MySpaces offer an extensive profile that can be edited. That gives people the opportunity to obtain any identity they would like. A 12 year old child that has any computer knowledge can copy and paste a picture of any celebrity and pose as that celebrity. This is why MySpace is not a reliable resource to help find out who actually blogs. Politicial bloggers, on the other hand, do have something that might actually be significant to say. So, many of the people that read and respond to these actually do have an opinion and are a more reliable source to finding out whether or not bloggers are actually “the people”.

In this article it is stated that political bloggers in America are typically male, higher income, and higher educated. This point may hold truth since the political aspect of America is predominantly male but the idea that they have a higher income and higher education is false. Just as technology grows through blogs, so do careers. Being a female in America is empowering, the job market is expanding and females are not slowing down. Females are now beginning to climb the corporate ladder and make higher income than males. With this in mind, the ideas that political bloggers in America are males with higher incomes and higher education is questionable- now as women are becoming fearless so are her political voices (through blogs and such).

Since blogging is quickly taking over the Internet world it is hard to come up with a statistic of what sex, income, and education the typical blogger is.

I created my very own blog for certain members of my family to read. It’s a way for them to know what’s going on in my life and head without me having to repeat myself 10 times. Even if my family didn’t read my blog, I would still blog. It’s a great way to express yourself whether or not there is an audience. I believe political bloggers feel the same way about their blogs. That is why I feel that the two different types of blogs could be categorized together. The two different types of writers have the same reasons for blogging.

Who are bloggers? Who do bloggers represent? To be honest I have no clue. Being an individual of somewhat traditional origins, I tend scoff at all of the latest, greatest advancements that seem to be popping up at an alarming rate. My stance has always been that was has worked for me for years will continue to work, and that if I am coerced by society into constantly conforming to what is new, cool, and technologically more advanced than what I had before, that I will continually find myself with an empty bank account and more and more stuff that I don’t need. The point is, I am presenting a non-biased response to a question about a topic that a mere five minutes ago I had never previously pondered. I believe that the basic structure and purpose of blogs/blogging is promising because it has the potential to expand the human mind to new heights. Never before have all people (not just the white, rich American men) had an opportunity to get there voice out and be heard, and also an opportunity to consider millions of other opinions. What many people have been fighting for for years has finally arrived. Despite ongoing social restraints, people now have the chance to be a voice without a face. You can be a quadriplegic, African American, Jewish 12 year-old and still put your opinion out there for consideration. With ideas and opinions swirling about, surely some good is to come of this. Geniuses everywhere without the proper medium surely have been waiting in silent anticipation for this moment. Now back to the original question, who are the bloggers? I hope that they are black, white, Asian, Mexican, male, female, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, young, old, rich, poor, etc. These people all have one astoundingly vital yet often overlooked thing in common, the human mind. Blogging to me, in conclusion, is or will become basically one big supercomputer of anyone’s thoughts about any given subject, no matter the depth, and no matter the label that our former, more primitive society may have placed on them.

To be honest, I do not have the slightest clue who bloggers represent. I have only recently been informed of the existence of blogs, and until this assignment I have never read one. I do know that blogs are also unfamiliar to most of the people I know. Therefore, blogs to me do not represent the American population. There is no doubt that there is an entire group/culture of people whose voice is represented by the comments on the vast amount of blogs. The most I can say about this subject of blogging is that bloggers are people who have an opinion about a certain topic and want their opinion to be heard. The blogger can be any person, which I guess is the beauty of it

Although I have little knowledge about internet blogs and bloggers, I feel that it is something that is on the rise and can be efficient. It comments on the fact that males with high incomes and a better education tend to be bloggers. This may be true now, but I think as more and more blogs are posted, more and more varieties of people will be exposed to these things. Some people find that the make-up of bloggers being male is controversial. I find this to be false. I think it is only a way of communicating through writing your own opinion on the internet. Something controversial would be something that happened years ago when people were politically fighting for their rights.

I stand behind the idea that blogging belongs to the tech-optimist. Blogging is in fact an emerging technology. It caters to certain communities and those who feel they have something to talk about! Many of my friends blog; some as a journal to share with others and others to discuss relative and new topics. A few years ago, some of my friends were fired from their job for expressing their opinion, via their personal blogs about the company they worked for. Since then, I have questioned the significance of blogging and rarely do so. Blogging, in my opinion, was first publicized by tech-enthusiast and will be a hype of its’ community until it becomes a more central service and can prove its worthiness to the general public.

I agree with drewchoj123 in that I have no idea who bloggers are and what they represent. Personally, I just think “bloggers” are people who enjoy getting on the interenet and debating various topics and their beliefs through blogs. It’s just like a debate class but you have the privilegde of not being confined to just the few people you might have in a classroom but a vast, diverse network of internet users. I don’t think bloggers necessarily represent any certain thing. I think each blogger represents themself. We each incorporate our own beliefs and views which makes every blogger individual and without that, blogs would no longer be.

Bloggers have certain anonymity. All we know about a blog is that the person who posted it had an interest in that particular subject, which doesn’t really say much as to the status of their social standings. The current profile results of a political blogger are those which have been seen pre-blog era, of in-person results of political activists.

However, I hardly think that blogs represent the American public seeing as how most people use them as a form of an online diary. If anything most kids use them on myspace.com as a delayed form of the ever popular instant messaging system. The kids are lying about their age, location, possibly their sex, to legally make themselves 18 to be able to use the services of myspace.com. So how can one judge the demographics? By basing them off of lies? In that case how can one truly say what or who blogging/bloggers represent?

I strongly agree with many of the above views that blog demographics are unreliable and hard to trust. The only way to trace who posted the message is by tracing the origin of an IP address. The problem is even if you isolate the blog to a particular computer, how do you know who posted it? It could be a family of eight people with shared access to the computer or a computer in a public or university library. Even if the blogger posts demographic information there is no way to verify it. Although I don’t have any personal experience with blogs, the technology seems to be dangerous if used improperly. If someone chooses to “vent” on the internet and post things they later wish to remove its not that easy. Everything on the internet is permanently placed in a cache which is saved and is always accessible. I’m sure everyone has seen cached listed under a search result on yahoo or other search engines. The consequences of posting a blog make it even more likely that a person would choose not to disclose there true identity. Some advocates might question whether or not a blog can truly be dangerous must consider the source of a blog. Terrorists and several other people are constantly surfing sites on a daily basis. I have personal knowledge of a member of the armed forces who posted a blog that resulted in the release of confidential military information over the internet. Even if some things are posted in the heat of the moment, there are huge consequences to posting things in a blog. The military has even begun to implement classes to educate soldiers about the possible harm of them posting any information in blogs. Even a location and small description of your surroundings, can be paired with other peoples blogs and be potentially dangerous. I guess my question or concern is where do you draw the line to blogging and how can any of the information obtained for one be used to benefit society?

It seems to me that blogs are part of the reason that young Americans are shifting to a more independent view on politics. I believe that blogs are allowing people to see opposing sides of issues more clearly because the audience has no idea who the blogger is. They aren’t being led blindly by some well-spoken politician who represents their political party. They are seeing the issues from many perspectives and allowing themselves to combine there own ideas with those of others or even create new ideas. Blogs are allowing people to come out of their shells and speak their minds with the shelter of anonymity. They don’t have to worry about the scorn of society, and they can just sit back at their computer and speak their mind to the world.

When I think of blogs I think about the Myspace website and the live journals a lot of my friends have, and update regularly. I have never really considered myself a blogger, mainly because I do not participate in writing my opinions or what all I did a certain day for all net surfers to read. However, as I am writing this I begin to think that whenever I comment on a friend’s Facebook wall I am stating facts and expressing my opinion, I might as well refer to myself as one. I can honestly say bloggers, aware of it or not, come in all shapes and form. Be it for a political reason, opinion based or even just to state some facts more and more people are entering the blogger world. Bloggers represent all walks of life stretching as far as teenage kids expressing themselves on live journals to politician’s opinions on the upcoming elections. No matter who the real blogger is behind the words they type, they are obviously people who take time to write something they want to be expressed to others and eventually find others who share their opinions too.

I think that blogging has become a part of the mass media world today in large part to websites that promote it such as facebook.com and myspace.com. I feel that these two websites will increase the use of blogging by elder men and women as well as the “non-typical” blogger, who is stated as being a middle-class white male. I believe this to be true for the simple reason that centers and buildings around the community are making large leaps and bounds to allow the public to use the Internet.
Even if there were not centers that gave free access to the public to use the Internet, they would still find out about it through word of mouth and; that might be enough to cause to interest to some people to check it out. Lets not forget that before blogging and those types of media, the people who now blog constantly used to blog verbally instead of electronically.

Bloggers are people who post stories or information online for people to read. Bloggers use the internet instead of communicating vocally or through books and other forms of media. Bloggers are sometimes news reporters, or people debating certain things. Many bloggers are just people who enjoy getting their voice heard without people knowing who they are. People feel they can say whatever they want through blogs especially since you can put a fake alias instead of your name. Bloggers represent people with opinions who use the internet to relay their messages to others. The bloggers I’m most familiar with are the ones on my space. These bloggers are mostly 13 year old girls talking about how cool they are and how they are into “cool” music and trends. These bloggers are a lot different than bloggers who blog about politics and world events. But all bloggers use the internet to talk about issues they find are important.

As a young adult I have never seen a political blog, but I have been subject to blogs such as my space and facebook. As I read the short essay on “Are Bloggers “The People,” I would only have to agree. The fact that certain people write there views on certain political events and people are writing that they agree; then that’s the “People.” It fits so perfectly that white male are the lead users of blogs, they most likely have more resources to the internet, therefore, giving them a high rate. But like you remarked the Rebecca you see a rise in women and blogging. I defiantly can concur with that, because ever woman I know wants to get her point across and everyone better listen……and agree. LoL!

As a very fresh person just learning about blogs, I already agree that bloggers are the people. Still having so much to learn, I believe that it is an intelligent and interesting new way for anyone with access to the internet to voice their opinion. Of course at the same time, political blogs are probably mostly visited by people interested in politics. Bloggers are the people who are just expressing themselves in a different way by posting it on the internet rather than getting into a heated debate in person or in print.

In today’s world, blogging is becoming a great source of information for young people. Not every person between the ages of 18-25 is going to be reading the newspaper, but they will certainly be surfing the net during boring hours of the day. When engaging in this time they may check out their favorite website such as Myspace or the Facebook. When I think of bloggers, these sites are what comes to mind. It’s a way for bloggers to communicate with many on an issue rather than limiting your debates or comments to a few. I truly believe that blogging will revolutionize the way we view information and the way we search for it. You will no longer tune into your favorite news station to see what today’s happenings were, but you will get on the WBRZ blog and catch a quick glimpse with an entire account of what happened, as well as posts from eye witnesses. Technology can only help our society and make things more factual!

I strongly agree with that the political world is dominated by the highly educated, white, and male upper class of America. Just look at the politicians of the world today, the vast majority are white males and there has yet to be a president of our nation who was not a highly educated white male coming from the upper-class.
Blogging obviously is a very new thing and the majority of the nation probably does not know that it exist, this is my first experience. However, as blogging grows and more and more people become familiar with it I believe that the quality and variety of blogging and politics will no longer be dominated by educated, white males, from the upper-class; at least in the “blogging” world.

Like many of the other contributors to this particular blog, before reading it, the blogging revolution never really registered on my radar. Sure, I’d heard of it, it’s almost rare to meet someone today without one of their initial questions being “Do you have mySpace?” But political blogging and interviewing bloggers on the news? I’m almost embarrassed at how oblivious I was. The question though is who are bloggers? With this form of expression being so new and technologically rooted, I would assume bloggers were more often young people, who are tech-savvy having grown up along with computers and the internet. However, I myself am a young adult, raised in the “Information Age,” and was previously almost completely unaware of this growing trend, and if according to the original post, the most influential political bloggers are the wealthier, educated males, trying to generalize most bloggers into an age group seems impossible. I think the anonymity of the blog is what appeals most to those who post. Without an identity, bloggers are entitled to complete freedom of expression, without repercussions. It’s because of this that it’s difficult to categorize bloggers into any specific types of people. Bloggers are just people with opinions, some maybe afraid to express them in public, some just trying to keep up with the advances in technology; rich, educated males, or young women, they do represent the people, because the people is everyone.

When I came into this blog, I had very limited knowledge about bloggers, mainly because, as a young adult, I am not really exposed to many political blogs. The blogs that I am use to are the ones that are posted on websites such as Myspace.com. Many teenagers post blogs regularly on Myspace.com, so I feel that the statistics of bloggers is going to be a much younger age in upcoming years,

I find it interesting at how low the percentage is of young political bloggers. I feel that many of the studies that are conducted are not entirely accurate. Most blogs are posted anonymously and the best way for statisticians to find their data is to just ask who posted certain blogs. I believe that as more studies are done, the greater number of younger bloggers will dramatically increase.

Who and what bloggers are or represent are good and interesting subject matters. I think that I would probably agree with some of the statements that were mentioned. I, like some others, didn’t know very much about bloggers until it was discussed in this article. I gather that the bloggers are basically very opinionated and out spoken individuals. After reading and reviewing the posts, I was able to get an idea about who and what bloggers could be. From this particular post, it seems like bloggers want and try to gain their popularity by getting publicity. In another words, when interesting topics come around, bloggers are invited to air their thoughts, which in most cases will affect the public’s opinions.

Who and what bloggers are or represent are good and interesting subject matters. I think that I would probably agree with some of the statements that were mentioned. I, like some others, didn’t know very much about bloggers until it was discussed in this article. I gather that the bloggers are basically very opinionated and out spoken individuals. After reading and reviewing the posts, I was able to get an idea about who and what bloggers could be. From this particular post, it seems like bloggers want and try to gain their popularity by getting publicity. In another words, when interesting topics come around, bloggers are invited to air their thoughts, which in most cases will affect the public’s opinions.

Who and what bloggers are or represent are good and interesting subject matters. I think that I would probably agree with some of the statements that were mentioned. I, like some others, didn’t know very much about bloggers until it was discussed in this article. I gather that the bloggers are basically very opinionated and out spoken individuals. After reading and reviewing the posts, I was able to get an idea about who and what bloggers could be. From this particular post, it seems like bloggers want and try to gain their popularity by getting publicity. In another words, when interesting topics come around, bloggers are invited to air their thoughts, which in most cases will affect the public’s opinions.

I found it very interesting reading the blog and the individual post of others on this site. In many ways I agree with the thoughts of those who posted a comment. I do believe that those who blog are mainly of higher income and education because they are the people who have access to computers in the first place. I have to agree with froggy16 when he points out that the Internet gives us all a chance to express our views with a hidden identity. In this way, I am not sure if one can certainly say if a blogger is a male or female. I also believe that the trend of blogging is moving towards younger girls who like to post blogs about their “exciting” lives…these blogs however are probably not interesting to others besides friends. With this said, one could notice that what one blogger may find facinating, another could find completely boring; however, this may not be a bad thing. This gives people a wide range of blogs to search when surfing the web. Weather it be politics, money making skills, or skateboarding, you can be sure there is something for everyone. In this way I do think bloggers represent the people. All I know for sure is that these statistics will be rapidly changing in years to come as our world becomes dependant on technological advancement.

What is or who is a blogger? And what is blogging? Both of these questions crossed my mind while reading this article. I choose to read this particular article because I did not know what a blogger was or what a blogger did. After reading the article I still wasn’t quite sure, but what I got from the article is that bloggers are people who comment on different topics over the Internet. People us blogging as a way to voice their opinion and get noticed. There are people of all age groups, ethnicity, and gender participating in blogging. Political bloggers tend to influence other people’s opinion. Quite honestly the article was sort of confusing, but I tried to gain knowledge from it.

After reading this post as well as comments left by others, I now feel more informed about this issue. It upsets me, however, to think that some females seem to feel inferior to the predominantly male political bloggers. For this technologically advanced generation, I feel blogging is a great step forward in our media world today. I think it gives people a chance to voice their opinions on certain issues concerning our world. I noticed it was stated that political bloggers seem to be males with higher income and higher education. I wish this wasn’t the case because I would love to see more diverse groups of people take part in the rising “blog world.” I think if different people were to take part in blogging for reasons such as voicing their opinions, this would make people more open-minded and can force people to see issues in a different light.

Although no certain group of leaders has come together and decided to give bloggers influence over political opinion, it is surely reality that bloggers are “influentials”. I do not believe that bloggers are a real representation of “the people” at this point in time. However, it doesn’t really matter who or what bloggers represent, whether it be the minority, the majority, women, or men, the fact is that they are having an impact on political opinion . The recognition of blogs is growing very quickly, and because of this I believe that in the future bloggers will better represent the people. Blogging is a “safe” way to cast your political opinion with no consequence. This comfortable way of having a voice will only grow in popularity. And because there is less pressure involved in blogging, ideas from blogs will be of a more inspiring, and open-minded nature.

Blogging is a way to get your opinions out there without having to worry about stage-fright and other confrontations. There are too many times when a unique idea pops into a shy person’s head and leads nowhere because that person is not going to say anything, at least not out loud. Any person can just sit at a computer and say what is on their mind. The worst thing that could happen is another anonymous person disagreeing with what you wrote. I agree that most bloggers are males for the same reason they are politicians, women are shy when it comes to things like that. I do still think that women blog just for different reasons than a man. A woman will get on a blog site and look to see other ideas that she hasn’t thought of yet and learn more about the topic. I see a man getting on the same site just to argue his point and make it known. Either way, they are successful in making us more knowledgeable as a population.

With only having very little knowledge of blogging, generally speaking, I can come up with an understanding that blogging can be a positive way of expressing ones opinion as appose to a negative aspect. In my opinion, I feel that the blogging process allows you to express how you feel, especially in terms of politics. I believe that everyone has a right to their own opinion, and blogging allows you to be heard through words. It creates different perspectives that can allow other viewers to think abroad and possibly come up with or form a better solution or answer to a problem. I think blogging can be beneficial as long as it stays in a respectable manner.

Blogging is just another way for someone to complain about their problems for everyone to see. The sad part is that no one really cares. But on the other hand blogging could be something great. Bloggers could share their wealth of knowledge with each other and answer each others questions. I have even posted on a few forums about things I didn’t understand or needed help figuring out and received more help then was actually needed. Blogging is a decent way of debating on subjects where both parties can put their points on the table. Although when debates are posted nothing really gets done, in the process it just creates a bunch of frustration between the two parties where both parties just walk away more pissed at each other then they were before the debate. There are too many stubborn close minded people in the world for something like blogging to work to its fullest extent. That is why something like blogging could be something great but just falls short of its full glory.

At first, I had a negative oppinion about bloggers because I camplared them to a face to face interview. For example, for the “man on the street reacting to the news story” I felt that your true feelings can be expressed better in person because there are only so much you can express in typing. For example, a reader might understand a sentence you wrote totally different of how you meant it. Instead, in person you can articulate and use body language to truely explain how you feel.Yes these things may be true, but now I definatly feel differently from learning exactly what blogging is. I realized the conveneince of it and how it may be more accurate than a face to face oppinion. The good thing about blogging is that any one can do it. I mean there are only so many people you can speak to in person to get their oppion on a subject. Then I realized how more accurate blogging may be compared to a face to face oppinion. A blogger can actually sit down for a while and truely think of what he has to say before typing. A person may not get to express how they truely feel in person because of the time at hand. Also, having no true identity helps because the blogger holds nothing back therefore expresses how he truely feels! Moreover, I love the fact that a blogger can be anyone and truely feel bloggers have a positive affect to the media.

While realizing this is a political blog, I must mention that I believe political blogs make up a very small portion of blog activity on the Internet. Minor details aside, I have been reading blogs for quite some time now. While they have mainly related to web development, I still believe my thoughts to be accurate of all bloggers. I’m not sure on your meaning of “Are bloggers the ‘people’?”, but I believe that they are people that are interested in, devoted to and just plain in love with a particular subject enough to spend the time sharing and discussing it with others. Not only that, but they must also feel they are wise enough on the subject(s) to be discussing the matters openly.

Like others have stated before, I had little understanding of what the term blog meant before reading the articles. However, I do find the whole concept very interesting. I believe that blogging is a great informal way to host discussions over the internet to mass groups of people. Blogging should definitely always be considered informal though and never be considered as “the people”. When hosting a public blog you never really know how creditable the source is and therefore it is only an opinion of an anonymous person or persons. Furthermore, there are plenty of people who do not have access to a computer or are just to shy to voice their opinion onto a blog, making it impossible for one to consider any blog “the people”.

“Who are bloggers?” Just by reading a few comments, I think it is obvious. Bloggers are strongly opinionated people who want to get their voice out. I don’t necessarily think it represents “the people” as a whole, but I do think it represents the vast number of people who want to express their feelings without being held accountable for it. As to whether they are dominated by males or females, I don’t think it really matters. Blogs are created for people to express their concerns on a particular subject, and male or female, everyone has their own opinion. Of course, there are always going to be those hardheaded individuals who take pride in stomping on others’ beliefs, but blogs are the perfect place for them. As citizens, we have a right to freedom of speech, and I think blogging is a great way of expressing that.

I think that this article will really can change peoples minds about who is active on the internet. I was very unaware that bloggers tend to be young males from the upper-middle class. I would suspect that most bloggers are in their teens or younger since it is a new web resource and those that grew up without it would be less inclined to such a habit as ranting on a website. I would be very interested to hear where these statistics came from. As for the political bloggers, do we know what side of the political spectrum these people mainly come from? This would bring us back to the #1 fact about bloggers, “they are not a good representation of the people”. The fact that the people who blog are very much a small minority and can almost be pigeonholed into exactly their demographic make me not rely on what blogs have to say.

The blogging world is definitely growing among high school to college aged people. In my own experience, I have noticed that typically the ones who blog the most are females. It seems to be a way of expressing one’s self and revealing thoughts that maybe he or she did not feel comfortable saying but for some reason find it appropriate for all to read. Given that females are more prone to wanting to express their feelings more than males, this is a good medium for that.
As far as political blogging goes, I am not familiar with what gender of person does this more, but can see how it would be one way to not only keep the web-journal readers posted, but also express viewpoints in a clearer, more public and easily accessible way.

I disagree with Mister MaTthew’s opinion that “blogging is just another way for someone to complain about their problems for everyone to see.” Quite clearly, yes, that may be the purpose of some bloggers. But that’s certainly not the main purpose. He goes on to say that blogging “could be something great.” Perhaps it already is? Some of the things he mentions, several bloggers already do. But to answer the question “Who are Bloggers?,” bloggers are just everyday people with their own opinions willing to share those opinions with the world, whether that be through a political blog, MySpace, or even sites such as LiveJournal.

This blog has greatly opened my eyes to the art of blogging. I usually spend my time on the internet chatting with friends or reading the news. The only time that I have personally come across blogging is on a website such as Myspace. It is news to me that “blogging” is something more than teenagers sharing their inner-most thoughts or the happenings of their typical high school life. I find it to be a great way for adults to get across their ideas to people all over. As far as politics goes, it can be very beneficial. Say a liberal person comes from a largely conservative area, they are able to find a group of bloggers as a support system. The only downfall of blogging I can see is people bashing other peoples thoughts. I find that to be rather childish. But other thank that I think that blogging is something that has potential and will become more and more popular.

I have no doubt that political blogs will continue to gain popularity in the years to come. However, I believe this popularity to overwhelmingly increase in the demographic that currently dominates political blogs. These blogs offer little to spark the interest of the younger generation who would rather spend their time on a computer playing games or checking their MySpace. Even for those of age to vote, political issues often fall on deaf ears no matter what form of media is presenting them. The idea of blogging suggests that the same apathetic youth would have to actively seek out said information when the interest simply is not there. Therefore, I believe in the utility of political blogs for those who are concerned with political issues, yet I do not see such blogs drawing the attention of the younger population who very well could be a powerful voting group if properly activated.

Blogging can have a bad reputation among some types of people. For me personally, before reading these blogs I had no interests in them whatsoever. I saw blogs as way for people to vent about stuff that annoys them or just another way for high school kids to keep in touch with each other. After reading some blogs I realized that blogging can be an extremely effective way to express one’s opinion. It is apparent now that bloggers are of all ages, races, and sexes. Blogging is on the rise and it will only gain momentum as a popular medium for people to express themselves. I find that now I am more open to blogging and will be perusing ones that catch my attention in the future.

I have to say that before I read this blog, I assumed that most bloggers were young adults or teenagers. I remember when the internet was all the rage with instant messaging and chat rooms when I was in high school, and I have a few friends that are into the blogs and myspace nowadays, but I just had no idea that there were so many people into blogging, especially the social groups that were mentioned. I never got into the blogging, but just decided to check it out and it’s so much more than I expected. Once I dug into it, I would have to agree that the majority is middle class white males. I would assume that the next big group would be young females. I don’t believe that blogs represent “the people” though, because there’s so many that don’t know much about it, me being one of them. And with that I have to say that “the people” aren’t being represented equally, but that the people are being influenced by the majority of bloggers.

Throughout my experiences with internet surfing, i have found that there are more female bloggers out there than male. However, my personal experiences can no way account for the majority of bloggers out there. I have found that when reading blogs about personal life experiences and problems, it is the female majority out there posting these blogs. Females will post blogs about their life, whats wrong with it, and who cheated on who last week, which differs from males, who really could care less.

I find that blogging is ones way to let our personal distress and to summarize their feelings in a few paragraphs, if blogging works for one, whether female or male, than it is useful, and can be persuassive if coming from an higher authority.

I agree with some of the posts made above, saying that bloggers are just people writing diary entries for people who care to read them. I believe that they are just people trying to voice their opinions without other people knowing who they are. They can write whatever they want and no one would know who they are. I also agree that bloggers only write about things they find important. If the subject is not something the blogger cares about, or is not interested in, then they are not going to worry about writing their opinion. I believe political bloggers are different though. I now know that the majority of political bloggers are actually higher educated males. I believe that they blog on important issues and that they don’t do it just to be heard. Finally, I believe most of them probably blog on more issues than just the ones they are interested in.

I personally have never participated in blogging until now. After reading about it, I realized that it is a very useful way to express one’s opinion to a fairly significant audience. I believe that blogging will only become more and more common as internet access becomes more widespread as well as more inexpensive. Technology seems to be advancing almost by the day and this will only expedite the process of transforming the internet into an essential in every home comparable to the radio before television. Once internet becomes this common, I think blogging will be much more customary and bloggers will expand beyond the stereotypical 20-30 year old range. Bloggers represent those who refuse to be ignorant and want others to know their opinion.

First of all there is a great difference between Political bloggers and those who share their opinions via the Internet about trivial subjects such as Hollywood’s newest breakup. Political bloggers may very well be influential and from the white male, upper class demographic but because that seems to be the largest group of people concerned about major political issues because it concerns them most.
Taking the time to post your opinion on the Internet means that the issue being discussed is particularly important to you and you feel that what you have to say is somewhat unique and worth reading. To educated older males this may even be a hobby and they could take pride in their blogging. Also people could blog just to feel associated with a group, especially with the medium of the Internet, not being face to face, inhibitions are lowered concerning the fear of rejection, because no one really knows who you are.

I think bloggers might not represent the whole human population but of course they represent a portion. It is your choice to blog and when you do and others go to that information and make deductions then your voice is being heard. If you choose to blog then you choose to be heard. Bloggers are just normal everyday people voicing their opinion in hopes of being heard and seen. They don’t have the fear of being judged because what they say is their opinion and they have a right to it. Some people may be underrepresented but its their choice to do so. Speak your mind and be heard.