Open AccessFilter Blogs vs. Personal Journals: Understanding the Knowledge Production Gap on the Internet
Author(s) -
Wei Lu
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of computer‐mediated communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.15
H-Index - 119
ISSN - 1083-6101
DOI - 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01452.x
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , the internet , filter (signal processing) , politics , production (economics) , political science , social media , public relations , sociology , psychology , internet privacy , world wide web , computer science , economics , law , population , demography , computer vision , macroeconomics
Blog is currently a popular form of knowledge production on the Internet. Research shows that relatively few bloggers produce “filter blogs,” which focus on political knowledge. Most bloggers produce personal journals. This study uses national survey data to determine whether and why people have differential knowledge production in the form of different blogs. As knowledge is a critical indicator of social power, this research also examines whether blogs with different levels of political knowledge demonstrate unequal social power. Results show that bloggers with higher socioeconomic status contribute more filter blogs than lower‐status segments. Even among filter bloggers, socioeconomic status, gender, and print‐media use are associated with social influence. These findings suggest that a knowledge production gap merits more scholarly attention.