Sinéad

Lying is part of daily life, and the Internet simply provides another space in which individuals can lie. Feature based theory suggests that three dimensions must be considered when examining deception – if the medium is synchronous, recordless and distributed. It has been proposed that individuals were less likely to lie in a recordable medium.

Due to the archiving feature of blogging this could suggest that bloggers are less likely to lie on their blogs in comparison to other online mediums, such as synchronous chat. However, with regard to blogging there are issues of identity concealment to consider, whilst deceptive, they are necessary to preserve the bloggers’ privacy.

Correspondingly, this research found that over 86% of bloggers indicated that they actively attempt to verify information before posting it on their blog, and 87% indicated that they had never published a lie on their blog. Of the small number of bloggers that had posted a lie, the majority done so to either to maintain their anonymity or for the purposes of fiction/satire or to embellish a story.

The majority of both bloggers and non-bloggers indicated that they had at least once attempted to double check information found on both Irish and non-Irish blogs, with only approx. 15% having never done this. However, this doesn’t necessarily indicate low levels of trust in the medium, but does perhaps point toward an awareness of the fact that blog publishing is unregulated.

Blogs offer individuals a novel vehicle in which to express their identity and has significant psychological consequences by way of involvement, identity and control. Technorati.com conducted an international survey in 2008 where two-thirds of respondents indicated that they openly exposed their identities on their blogs. This research found similar results with Irish bloggers, with 60% indicating that they used their real name on their blogs. Bloggers whom used a pseudonym did not differ in their levels of concern for privacy or permanence online in comparison to those that blogged using their real name.

Interestingly of the approx. 40% that blog using a pseudonym, 23% of this group also blogged using their real name. This suggests that some bloggers are taking advantage of both the benefits of blogging as themselves i.e benefits to reputation, and also anonymously somewhere else online. Anonymity online can help individuals to explore their identity, reduce shyness and encourage interactions with others online.

Though the Internet does help to support strong tie relationships, it is particularity effective for weak tie groups, allowing for the efficient flow of information and facilitating the development of ideas, blogospheres are a particularly good example of how the internet facilitates this.

The blogosphere is a classic social network but its characteristics differentiate it from most social networks, where communication is predominantly verbal and unrecorded. Networks of bloggers will often aggregate all of their individual blogs to a centralised location online, and these are referred to as planet aggregators an example of which is Irishblogs.ie.

However, some blogs are more connected to a blogosphere than others, with some bloggers not being connected to any blogosphere at all. Over 65% of bloggers indicated that they were listed on an Irish planet aggregator, and almost 64% consider themselves a member of the Irish blogosphere. The remaining bloggers indicated that they were not listed and did not consider themselves part of the Irish blogosphere. This highlights the 35% of bloggers unconnected from the Irish blogosphere, and this could suggest that there are far more Irish people blogging than is known.

Credibility is important because people are less likely to pay attention to a medium perceived as not being credible and bloggers are communicators whose potential to influence is derived from their credibility i.e., expertise on a subject or perception of being trustworthy, unbiased and independent. Due to the popularity of blogging sites such as Blogger.com with Irish internet users but the estimated low number of actual Irish bloggers, this research investigated if blogs based outside of Ireland are read more often and perceived as being more credible.

It was assumed that non-bloggers would rate blogs based outside of Ireland as more credible than Irish blogs. However, out of a maximum score of 20 the non-bloggers rated Irish blogs with a mean score of 13.02 and non-Irish blogs with 12.64. The mean rating of the credibility of Irish blogs was actually slightly higher, though not significantly so.

Previous research has suggested that the more an individual relies on a source, the higher credibility they attribute to it, and the bloggers did rate the overall credibility of blogs higher than the non-bloggers. However, neither the bloggers nor the non-bloggers rated either Irish blogs or non-Irish blogs as significantly higher in credibility than the other. Incidentally, without a comparison to credibility scores of the traditional forms of Irish media this rating can only be used to compare the two categories investigated – Irish blogs and non-Irish blogs.

Additionally, approximately 50% of both groups said that they read a mixture of both Irish and non-Irish blogs, and approx. 35% said that they primarily read Irish blogs. Both the bloggers and non-bloggers indicated that they believed that blogging was more popular in other countries, and both groups thought that the medium was popular, but not “very popular” worldwide.

Past research has suggested that blogging has the potential to increase social capital – social capital is all of the resources accumulated through the relationships amongst people. Social capital allows individuals to draw on the resources of other members of their network; these resources vary in form, from personal relationships, to useful information, to the ability to organize groups. What facilitates social capital is the network of social relationships, trust among members and the norms of behaviour.

The Internet supports social networks, helps build social capital and having access to individuals outside one’s usual close circle can provide access to non-redundant information, resulting in benefits such as employment connections. During this research it was assumed that blog writing had a positive effect on the social lives of Irish bloggers, and it was queried what impact, if any, it had on their academic and professional lives too.

35.5% of bloggers believed blogging had a positive effect on their social lives, with 19.9% saying it had a “very positive” effect. Most importantly though, less than 1% indicated that it had any negative effect, and less than 44% indicated that it had no effect. Additional questions revealed that blogging has had an especially positive effect on the development of weak tie relationships with 81.3% of bloggers indicating that they have made friends that they communicate with online because of blogging. Weak ties are typical of relationships among casual acquaintances and are important for sharing information, making contacts and increasing awareness about new ideas.

Most people have only a few strong ties (closely-knit groups) and many weak ties. However, strong tie relationships can and do initiate online and can successfully move offline, as demonstrated by the 28.45% of Irish bloggers who have developed close friendships because of their blogging, additionally 62.07% of Irish bloggers have met people in real life as a result of their blogging. Although socalisation was found to not be a primary motivation for Irish bloggers, these results suggest socalisation is a by-product of writing a blog.

In an international online survey it was found that blogging is both personally satisfying and has a positive impact on its writer’s lives, with some bloggers claiming to have received speaking or publishing opportunities and career advancement because of their blogs. During this research it was found that less than 3% of Irish bloggers indicated that blogging had any negative effects upon their academic or professional lives,  and over 34% indicated it had a positive effect on their professional lives, and over 33% said it had a “very positive” effect.  Additionally, over 50% said it had no effect on  their academic lives however, over 30% said it had a positive effect and over 15% said it had a “very positive” effect

Blogging as a form of knowledge sharing contributes to the creation of a public good in the form of shared intellectual capital, and the positive social effects discussed above, combined with the academic and professional positive effects of blogging suggest that blogging can increase social capital, and Irish bloggers are clearly benefiting from this.

Privacy is both a preference and state, individuals can either have privacy or desire privacy and there are many different approaches to understanding privacy, many of them dealing with the access of information. Though there have been arguments that privacy is more about having the right to prevent the disclosure of personal information.

The Internet poses unique information privacy threats. Once information is recorded online it rarely disappears. It has permanence, and the individual the information belongs to can in many cases have no power to decide what happens to it.

During this research it was assumed that non-bloggers would indicate higher levels of concern with regard to issues of online privacy and the persistent nature of the Internet, in comparison to the bloggers. What was actually found was that both bloggers and non-bloggers have similar levels of concern about online privacy. 48.93% of the total participant sample indicated they were “concerned” and 16.87% indicated that they were “very concerned” about online privacy. However, there was a significant difference found between scores for concern about online permanence. 46.07% of non-bloggers indicated that they were “concerned” and 13.48% were “very concerned”, in comparison 36.48% of bloggers said they were “concerned” and 10.66% said they were “very concerned”.

Results indicate that Irish bloggers are not overly concerned about their published materials remaining online indefinitely, but Irish non-bloggers are, and this was one of the only differences found between the two groups. Concurrently bloggers were also asked how concerned they are with the possible misuse of information on their blogs, with over 38% indicating that they were concerned and 10% saying that they were “very concerned”.

Only 35% of the overall sample was female, but in a 2006 survey on Irish blogs only 14% of respondents were female indicating an increase in women participating in the medium. Also, over 50% of the females surveyed for this research were bloggers and it was found that there was no relationship between gender, or age, and participation in writing a blog.

The majority of the sample had 10 years or more experience online, but both bloggers and non-bloggers had very similar levels of experience – indicating that online experience is not a key indicator for participation in writing a blog, but is more likely to be an indicator of awareness of the medium. Correspondingly, computer skill levels were found to be similar in both bloggers and non-bloggers.

However, it was also found that bloggers are no longer primarily based in the Information Technology sector (as was the case in 2006) with less than 30% of bloggers coming from IT, almost 17% coming from the Media sector, 9% from the Education sector, and the remaining 56% coming from a variety of different areas e.g. Retail, Government, and Arts/Design etc. Additionally only 20% of the non-bloggers were based in IT. This suggests that exposure to the medium is not reliant on an individual being in involved with IT.

As part of the M.Sc. in Cyberpsychology I conducted a research study focusing on Irish bloggers and Irish internet users that read blogs. A third of this research involved an extensive review of past psychological research on blogging, collating available statistical data with regard to Irish internet user behaviours and information regarding Irish blogging. Based on this detailed literature review and extensive consultation with both bloggers and non-bloggers a questionnaire was created and in January of this year the survey was published online, gathering 422 participants – 244 bloggers and 178 non-bloggers.

This research is the first to investigate the psychological areas of interest surrounding blogging applied to an Irish audience, and is the first in-depth study of Irish blog authors; additionally it is the first study of Irish blog readers. The results constitute an additional step toward understanding Irish bloggers, and suggests only slight differences between those who blog and those who read blogs but do not blog themselves. Based on the results gathered additional studies with regard to any cultural differences between Irish bloggers and international ones could be ascertained. The strengths of this study lie in its large sample size and the flexibility of the questionnaire itself, where participants had the option of inputting rich qualitative data.

The overall aim of this research was to explore the perceptions, attitudes and behaviours of Irish bloggers and non-blogging Irish internet users that read blogs. Attitudes to the issues surrounding blogging – trust, honesty, liability, privacy and permanence, were explored. Writer’s behaviours with regard to identity, motivations, and socialisation were investigated. Perceptions of the credibility and popularity of blogging in Ireland in comparison to other countries was investigated, and readership behaviours – frequency and origin of blogs read, were examined.

Over the next few days I will be publishing summaries of the most interesting findings, and the entire research document is now available via email request.

Though I had planned on publishing the document online I am currently writing a journal article for possible publication and therefore must wait until this process is complete before publishing the entire document online.  Participants that requested to be contacted when this research was available online will be contacted when all of the blog posts related to this research are published here.

An abstract (a very short summary) of the research is available here.

On a Sunday morning you can often hear the words “Where’s Culture?” in my house, the reply is so often “Well you won’t find any around here!” rather than something far less witty like “I’m not finished reading it, here, have News Review instead.” But who needs the Sunday Times anymore when you’ve got Culch.ie?

It’s the new group blog on the block and it’s all about the pop culture. Coming to you from the most opinionated bunch of Irish bloggers around. With it’s baby daddy being none other than Rick O’Shea it’s already got a head start. In the first offical day alone it has amassed more than 100 comments. There’s some great posts about Watchmen already up, tons of movie news, a gorgeous poem, even *I* found the time to write a post or two and you can even find some Culch on twitter too.