The Internet's New Storytellers

A report issued by the Pew Internet and American Life Project on July 19 entitled, "A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers" details the results of a telephone survey of bloggers, finding that "blogging is inspiring a new group of writers and creators to share their voices with the world." Some of the more interesting findings of the study include that:

• "Blogging is bringing new voices to the online world."
  
• "Contrary to the impression created by the press attention on political blogging, just 11% of bloggers say they focus mainly on government or politics."
  
• "The blogging population is young, evenly split between women and men, and racially diverse."
  
• "The main reasons for keeping a blog are creative expression and sharing personal experiences."
  
• "Only one-third of bloggers see blogging as a form of journalism. Yet many check facts and cite original sources."

Today's San Francsico Chronicle contains an article entitled, "The Truth About Blogging" further disucussing the report.

It is intriguing in light of the above findings to consider the following words of Shoghi Effendi, written in 1936, describing one of the attributes of a future world commonwealth:

The press will. . . while giving full scope to the expression of the diversified views and convictions of mankind, cease to be mischievously manipulated by vested interests, whether private or public, and will be liberated from the influence of contending governments and peoples.