Blogs — once seen as the domain of crabby movie fans and conspiracy theorists — are moving increasingly into the mainstream, with roughly one in three Americans saying they've read a weblog at least once, a new poll suggests.
As well, more than half of those people say blogs have an impact on public opinion, mainstream media and public policy, according to the results of a survey released Wednesday by research firm Ipsos.
The poll, which sought out the opinions of 2,537 American adults, found that about 30 per cent of on-line Americans had read a blog at least once.
Among those who regularly read blogs, 38 per cent said they clicked over to them at least once a week.
Geographically, blogs — essentially personal journals published on the Internet — were most popular in the western United States, where 37 per cent of respondents reported visiting a blog.
Although blogs have traditionally been viewed as hit-and-miss in terms of their reliability, the tide now appears to be turning.
Of those who said they read a blog at least once, more than half described them as either somewhat or very accurate.
By comparison, those who said they hadn't visited a blog said the on-line journals were accurate only 22 per cent of the time.
“Blog readers are also more likely to judge other media sources more accurate than their non-blogging counterparts,” the poll suggested.
According to the findings, 84 per cent of blog readers called their local news accurate, compared with 75 per cent of non-blog readers. Similarly, 81 per cent of blog readers reported newspapers as being accurate, versus 71 per cent of their non-blog reading counterparts.
Sixty-eight of blog readers also believe weblogs influence public opinion. About three in 10 people who don't read blogs, also still felt weblogs had an impact in that area.
About 54 per cent of blog readers felt the medium had an influence on public policy. Six in 10 said blogs were at least somewhat influential when it comes to mainstream media.
