ABSTRACT
Blogs have received a lot of press lately because many members of the press have started blogging. Given the widespread diffusion of the underlying RSS (really simple syndication) technology, blogs have become commonplace in the online media landscape. Most high-profile bloggers are political journalists and most of the scholarly attention thus far has focused on the impact of this new venue on civic participation and the future of democracy. Relatively little media and scholarly attention has been paid to personal blogs that discuss topics other than politics. For example, the burgeoning number of health blogs has gone virtually unnoticed in mainstream media and the academic discourse about blogs.
