Bloggers have "disproportionately large influence"

I've often considered why big business, governments and other powerful bodies are showing an interest in blogging. The main reason is that the influence of blogs is almost if not impossible to measure.

However, an article in The Guardian yesterday went some way to explaining the interest in blogs. In Ignore bloggers at your peril, say researchers (Bobbie Johnson) it is argued that bloggers and internet pundits are exerting a "disproportionately large influence" on society. As expected, how the conclusions are reached is not so clear.

Despite an obvious observation that blogs are not representative of the larger audience, blogs tend to be written by the better off, the better educated, and the employed. What is more, the relatively small audiences that blogs can command is to a certain extent irrelevant because blogs are thought to represent a wider swath of opinion.

There are lots more avenues explored in the article, but what the article made me think of is this. First of all, what socio-economic group blog the most? And second, to what extent is this reflective of the socio-economic groups who occupy high profile corporate, media and political institutions?

If blogs are influential (in whatever way) on human decision-making and are representative of a less or traditionally influential part of society expect quite profound societal changes in the next twenty years. If it's much the same - long live the status quo!

One new work-related blog to add: Spilling the coffee - technology project administrator