Blog Influence Overblown?
Kate Kaye blogs about a new Pew study on blog influence:
Bloggers are often touted as influential instigators, feeding buzz-worthy topics to the mainstream media they so disdain, and even guiding discussion in other communication channels. Not so, says a new study analyzing the impact of political blogs on the national conversation leading up to the 2004 presidential election. Indeed, Buzz, Blogs, and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004 concludes that, while a force to be reckoned with, blogs are merely cogs in the meme machine.
All too often advocates of new technologies are blinded by their promise. The Internet, blogs, podcasts and the like all have an impact — and will have an increasing impact over time. But it is far too early to say that blogs fundamentally change the dynamics of politics altogether.