Blogger Influence Comes From “The Who,” Not The “How Many,” Part 2

17 May, 2005 by John Hawkins

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Traffic wise, blogs certainly aren’t competitive yet with cable news, radio talk shows, or even bigger websites like the Drudge Report.

Given that, why have blogs been able to break huge stories and how is it that they seem to be getting so much attention from the mainstream media?

My theory has always been that “blogger influence comes mostly from ‘the who,’ not the ‘how many.'”

That certainly seemed to be the case when I polled conservative opinion makers and found that 68% of them read blogs. Of course, that was almost a year ago, back at the beginning of June, 2004. Today, the numbers would probably be even higher.

A poll done by the University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy certainly seems to confirm that.

According to them: “8 in 10 journalists said they read blogs, while less than 1 in 10 others do so.”

Blogs may not have readerships large enough to influence the public — yet — but the people who do have those kind of audiences are reading blogs. Put another way, bloggers are household names to the people who are household names in the news business, but not to the American public. That’s a good way for us bloggers to think of our place in the media food chain right now.