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Blogging Culture

With the widespread use of the Internet, a new form of culture has emerged: the blog. A blog is a chronological display of entries that people make on the Internet on topics that can be about anything, but most often involve politics or popular culture. A blog is an active diary of sorts in which multiple people participate, either as those who make the entries or those who simply read them.

This new cultural phenomenon raises new questions for sociological research. Studies of blogs find that women are a small proportion of bloggers; only 10 percent of the bloggers on the most widely used political sites.

Some use blogs as support systems for example; a gay person in a very traditional and isolated community may participate in a blog that provides a national community of support. One study in China found that many women are using blogs to subvert traditional concepts of womanhood.

Blogs are also increasingly important in political organizing not just in mainstream campaigns but also in grassroots movements. The use of blogs is a good example of how technological innovation can create new forms of culture. The blogging communities can cross-vast geographic distances that connect people who might not ever meet face to face. The cyberspace communities can now create new "imagined communities."
Some sociologists suggest that blogs can actually create a more democratic society by directly engaging more people in political discussion and activity.

Current Affairs Magazine