Blogs - are they overhyped
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This article from today's Guardian by Victor Keegan suggests that blogs might not be as much of a phenomenon as people make out. He points out that the membership of social networking sites greatly exceeds the number of blogs. In addition, many blogs are low traffic blogs and/or are infrequently updated.
I think it is inevitable, given that people only have a limited amount of time to read and write blogs, that the readership of most of them (including this one!) will be low. However, I do not think that negates the use of blogs as a method to communicate with others elsewhere in the world and a way of the individual expressing his or her opinions. However, we must be clear not to over-hype this. Most people are not reading blogs and, even if they are, they are not necessarily reading political blogs. This will limit the effect that the writing on, even well-read and well-written blogs, can actually affect political discourse. Politicians and lobby groups will still have to work through the mass media - TV, radio and the newspapers - to get their messages across to most people.
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