27% of Americans online read blogs

Associated Press (via MSNBC.com): Blog creation, readership jumped in '04. 27 percent of Americans online read blogs, Pew survey finds.

Readership of online journals known as Weblogs grew significantly in 2004, driven by increased awareness of them during the presidential campaign and other major news events, according to a study released Sunday.

Twenty-seven percent of online adults in the United States said in November they read Weblogs, or blogs, compared with 17 percent in a February survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Blogs that cover the tsunami disaster and relief efforts are bound to boost readership further, said Lee Rainie, the project’s director.

“The tsunami is one of those cataclysmic news moments where lots of people’s perceptions change,” Rainie said. “Awareness of blogs will grow dramatically. There’s so much attention to the coverage on blogs and Web sites and first-person video as primary news sources.”

In the past week, blogs have shared information on giving money and finding missing family members, and several posted first-person narratives and photos from the affected areas. The web of links that are fundamental to blogs made it possible to quickly disseminate information that otherwise would have remained obscure. ...

Though blog readership jumped, the percentage of online Americans who write blogs grew only slightly — to 7 percent in November, up from 5 percent early in the year. Blog creators tend to be male, affluent, well-educated and young; 70 percent of them have high-speed connections at home, and 82 percent have been online at least six years.

Despite the attention to blogging, a large number of Americans remain clueless — only 38 percent of Internet users know what a blog is.