Motivations for Reading Online Blogs

Motivations for Reading Online Blogs1. cosmosComputer mediated communication (CMC) has brought closely a great flip-flop in the way we interact and look for information (Papacharissi and Rubin, 2000). Using the internet, today, physical exercisers bear access to thousands of sources, get information that is presented in a wide pass of formats, and layabout besides interact with people anywhere in the world.With the enlistment of the wise millennium at that place has been a fundamental shift in the way people all over the world communicate raze using the internet. This phenomenal change has occurred with the arrival of the Web 2.0 technology which has enabled change magnitude amount of interaction and comm unity formation. Of all the Web 2.0 applications, one of the close interesting and rising Web 2.0 innovations is we communicates, popularly referred to as intercommunicates.Blogs ar frequently-updated websites by the owner of the site, where multimedia discipline ca n be posted. Blogs form a new genre of computer-mediated communication (Blood, 2002). Blog posts are generally in the reverse chronological put and the older posts can be archived. Readers of communicates can comment, rate, bookmark or link to the blog. Such linking forms an entire ne twainrk of passing connected people (Wilde, 2007). This clustered net prepare of interconnected texts form what is called the blogosphere?. exactly put, the blogosphere comprises of groups of authors of content and their readers/ substance abusers.Blogs are rising in popularity. The total number of blogs in Technorati, a popular blog indexing site had reached a 133 meg mark by 2008, with 900,000 blog posts in 24 hours (Sifry, 2008). With such exponential function growth, in recent times the academia and industry has taken well be keep upd nonice of the medium.Research has been conducted on blog writer and reader motivations and closing behaviour (Huang, wampum Lin, 2008).Studies formulate t hat motivation is a function of natural and extrinsic factors (Guay, Vallerand Blanchard, 2000). Hence one can infer that motivation to use a blog testament change with the type of blog. However, studies nurse not considered blog user motivations in the context of the blog types.Not much(prenominal) donnish question has been by means of in hit the booksing blog readers (Huang, Chou Lin, 2008). This explore is an attempt at developing an instinct of the motivations behind variant of blogs, in relation to different types of blogs. The present depicted object aims at understanding the key takers that motivate blog knowledge among Indians and hence develop a model which clearly brings out the association of these motivating factors with miscellaneous types of blogs. The smorgasbord of blogs leave alone be on the tail end of reader perception. Hence, it is expected that the body of work go forth help developing a consumer-centric classification lineation for blogs. breathing literature in the sphere of blogs indicates that little research has happened in this field. However, of whatever work has been done, about of the research focuses on the blog itself or on the blogger, and very rarely on the blog reader (Huang et al., 2008). This section duologue about the quick body of knowledge on blogs.Huang et al., (2008), urinate suggested a good way of classifying the existing academic research on blogs. They say that previous research of blogs has investigated blog categories, motives for use, or motives for writing. Scholars besides consider readers responses later interlingual rendition blogs, such as trust and interaction? (p. 351). in that location are even studies done on the structural and systems aspects of blogs (Wilde, 2008 Herring, Scheidt, Wright Bonus, 2005 Schmidt, 2007) and blogging benefits (Baker and Moore, 2008).Looking at studies that have gone into the details of blog categories, a lot of work has been done by blog aut hors themselves (Herring, Scheidt, Wright Bonus, 2005). near of the most important ones which are oft-quoted in literature are those of Blood (2002), Krishnamurthy (2002) and Herring et al. (2005), who have all significantly sufferd to the field of classification of blogs.Blood (2002) classified blogs into three types on the primer of their functions as filters, personal journals and notebooks. Krishnamurthy (2002) went on to classify blogs into four types using devil ratios of a blogs orientation personal versus topical and community versus individual. Herring, Scheidt, Wright, and Bonus (2005) use Krishnamurthys categorization and further developed a five-category scheme for classification of blogs on the basis of frequency of updating. Dearstyne (2005) suggests five types of blogs based on their uses. Corry and Mundell (2006) have graveld at a certain blog classification scheme on the basis of the purpose of existence of the blogs. However, all these classifications have either come from content analysis of blogs and do not take the readers view into consideration for classifying. on that point has been a lot of research done on specific genres of blogs. unconnected from analyses of personal blogs, extensive research has been done on journalist blogs (Haas, 2005 Lasica, 2002 Matheson, 2004 Tre mayne, 2006). semipolitical blogs form another interesting topic of reserahc (Bahnisch, 2006 Bruns, 2007 Singer, 2005). A growing area of research is the role of blogs as organizational communication vehicle through corporate blogs (Charman, 2006 Efimova Grudin, 2007 Kaiser, Mller-Seitz, Pereira, Pina, 2007 Kelleher Miller, 2006). Yet another practical use of blogs that is world studied is its use for expert communication and personal knowledge counsel (Ewins, 2005 Halavais, 2006 Walker, 2006) or professionals from other disciplines (Bar-Ilan, 2005).A second set of research work has been done on the blog users in general and their behavioural patterns. numerous researchers have act to look into what are the sundry(a) factors that go into what users of blog do. Bloggers use blogs for several reasons including using it as a personal journal, as a discussion space, as a collection of links, as an thinking center among many others (Figueredo, 2005). It may be inferred that, due to its multifarious uses, there may be numerous motivations, both inseparable and extrinsic, that lead to blog usage (Huang, Shen, Lin Chang, 2007).Baker and Moore (2008) have studied the perception of loving well-being, loving support and social satisfaction of bloggers as against those of non-bloggers. They found that bloggers social integration, trusty alliance and friendship satisfaction increased significantly compared to non-bloggers, suggesting that blogging has beneficial personal effects on social well-being, especially with respect to perceived social support.Trevino (2005) has tried to necessitate the reasons why people are in the blogosphe re concluded that the most important factor motivating peoples presence in the blogosphere is that self-expression. Shen and Chiou (2009) need the aspects that go into blog community formation and the factors which cause an individual to be a part of the blog community. They say that community assignment increases go awayingness to be a part of the community thereby compulsoryly influencing an individuals attitude towards the community to inhabit a member of the community.There is another body of knowledge which discusses the bring out of trust and self-disclosure on blogs (e.g., Qian and Scott, 2007 Ko and Kuo, 2009). Qian and Scott (2007) explore the get evens of anonymity and self-disclosure on blogs. This study concludes that bloggers whose target audience does not include people they know offline handle a higher degree of anonymity than those whose audience does. Ko and Kuo (2009) denounce that self-disclosure of bloggers significantly and directly affects a bloggers perception of social integration, bonding social capital, and bridge social capital, which in turn promote bloggers subjective well-being.?A subset of research on blog users is those on blog writers or bloggers. Some researchers have tried to understand bloggers motivations in great depth (e.g.. Blood, 2002 Blumenthal, 2005 Herring, Scheidt, Wright Bonus, 2005 Lenhart and Fox, 2006 Huang, Shen, Lin Chang, 2007). However, Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht and Swartz (2004) analysed this issue in detail. They conducted ethnographic interviews and concluded that bloggers have five fundamental motivations that drive them to blog to document their biography experiences, to provide commentary and opinions, to express profoundly felt emotions, to articulate ideas through writing, and to form and chief(prenominal)tain community forums.Huang, Shen, Lin Chang (2007) conducted an confirmable study which concluded that interaction by blogging is driven by the motivations of self-expression, life documenting, and commenting while on the other hand, content gathering by blogging is found to be driven by the motivations of commenting, forum participation, and information seeking. They in any case went on to say that these motivations drive two types of behaviour interaction-oriented behaviour and information-oriented behaviour.There is also an attempt at understanding self- notification strategies that blog writers adopt (Jung, Youn McClung, 2007). This study shows that the reasons for hosting personal mini-homepages are entertainment and self-expression followed by the professional advancement and passing time. concord to the uses and gratification theory, users are seen as active gratification seekers interacting with the media as debate to passive recipients of media content (Goffman, 1959). Having said this, blog readers are consuming content, and have the choice to read content that they want to at any stipulation point of time. slice all the above mentioned areas o f research lay Brobdingnagian emphasis on the blogger, the blog reader, who forms an important component of the blogosphere, has been sparsely researched on (Huang, Chou Lin, 2008).Huang, Chou Lin (2008) tried to study the fundamental motivators behind reading blogs. This research work has dumbfoundd at a causal relationship of motives with blog reader responses. later on secondary research and alpha research, the authors have employ five distinct motives in their study affective exchange, information search, entertainment, and getting on the bandwagon. The behaviours that the paper proposes are opinion acceptance, interaction intentions, and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions.While looking at the existing literature on blog user behaviour (both blogger and blog readers), it has been found that most of the blogs are of the personal blogs type. However, researchers have not tried to explore behaviour on the basis of blog type.From the above literature review, it is evident that th ere is a void in the area of research that concerns blog readers as a category of individuals on the blogosphere. Also, there is no work that has tried to bring a readers dimension to classification of blogs. Hence, this study will aim at bringing about a relationship between the motivating factors for reading blogs and the various types of blogs that may eventually emerge from the blog-consumers perspective.3. Problem DefinitionThis research aims to study the various factors that motivate reading of blogs corresponding to the various types of blogs that exist. This is a study that will be conducted among Indian blog readers. 3.1. Research purposesThe key objective of the study is to identify factors affecting blog-reading and try mapping them to the various types of blogs in order to better understand motivators that drive reading through this new medium.This main objective can be achieved through the following objectives.* To identify the various drivers that motivate blog-readin g among Indian* To develop a customer-centric blog classification schema on the basis of these drivers4. Proposed Research Methodology4.1. Research DesignThe research design will largely be a combination of exploratory and descriptive methods. Since the model cannot be built without further exploratory research, the study will have a mix of qualitative and quantitative techniques.The study will be conducted in two stages. The first stage will involve exploratory research which will help arrive at the factors that motivate reading of blogs. The output of this stage of the research, i.e., the list of motivators would be the scuttlebutt for the next stage which would involve quantitative validation of the factors using a semi-structured questionnaire.Stage 1This involves understanding the motivating factors for blog reading in order to make a comprehensive list. This list of factors would be obtained from digest of secondary dataThis involves collecting the list of motivating factor s in existing literature in the area of blog reading and general online reading. uncreated research In-depth interviewsTo determine the various factors that capture blog reading among online users in a manner that facilitates respondents to interact freely while giving the interviewer also the scope to probe deeply.Stage 2This is the point where descriptive research is carried out. This is done to understand the most important motivating factors associated with different classes of blogs. particular research Semi-Structured QuestionnaireThe questionnaire would carry the factors heady at stage 1 which would be rated by the respondents. Administration of the questionnaire to the respondents would be done online.4.2. Proposed Method of AnalysisAfter the questionnaire is administered and the responses, collected, data analysis has to be done in order to arrive at the final model that the research proposes to develop. The following uninflected tools will be used in order to arrive a t the motivational model. Factor AnalysisFactor analysis has been proposed in order to arrive at the most important set of motives for reading blogs after the exploratory research. RegressionThe factors and their relationship with different blog types can be determined through regression.4.3. Universe DefinitionThe following are the specifications of the target group. arcsecond A, BAge 15 30Element Indian young-begetting(prenominal) or female individual having access to internet at home, college or workplace who are readers of blogs.Place India4.4. Sampling StructureThe sampling unit in this case is individuals. The sample design is described separately for the two stages as follows.Stage 1 Qualitative Study Sampling proficiencyPurposive sampling would be used for conducting the depth interview. Sample surfaceThis would be conducted among 9 individuals. Sampling Plan The respondents would be blog readers selected from the metropolis of Ahmedabad. Recruiting will be done on th e basis of respondents frequency of reading blogs. Hence there will be three categories of blog readers with 3 individuals in each category extremely regular, moderately regular and unconventional readers of blogs.Stage 2 Quantitative Study Sampling Technique sweet sand verbena Sampling would be used for administering the questionnaire. Taking the route of references will interpret response. Sample SizeThe proposed sample size for the study will be approximately 200. Depending on the number of variables in the final model, the sample size will undergo change. Sampling PlanThe geographic dispersion will be taken care of at the stage of online administration of the questionnaire to grievance for the four major zones (North, South, East West) of India.5. Expected ContributionSo far, research has seen blogs mainly from the blog writers perspective. There is almost a dearth of academic research in the about blog readers. This research will contribute to bridging this gap in knowled ge.Existing research talks about blog reading motivations without taking blog types into consideration. By taking blog types also into account, this research adds a very important dimension to the existing knowledge.There has been no published, academic research done on blogging behaviour in India. Being specific to Indian blog-readers, the will add to the Indian academic body of knowledge.Last but not the least, understanding the key factors that influence blog reading specific genres of blogs can help content producers curve their blogs in a manner which appeals most to their readers. This finding will go a long way in helping brand managers in tailoring blog-based communication for their brands to engage their audiences.ReferencesBaker, J. R., Moore, S. M. (2008). Bloggingas a Social Tool A Psychosocial Examination of the Effects ofBlogging. CyberPsychology Behavior, mint 11, Issue 6, 747- 749.Bar-Ilan, J. 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