Political blog readers: Predictors of motivations for accessing political blogs

This study examines the motivations for why politically interested Internet users in the United States access political blogs and attempts to discover which factors predict motivations for using political blogs. Political surveillance/guidance motives appeared as the strongest motivation for using political blogs, followed by expression/affiliation, convenience/information seeking, and entertainment. Hierarchical regression analysis reveals that blog users with higher levels of political involvement and strength of party affiliation are attracted to political blogs to freely express their political opinion and communicate with other like-minded people, which may indicate the potential of Weblogs as an interactive political discursive space. Based on the findings, this study presents implications and suggestions for future research.

► Politically interested users of this study are motivated to use political blogs for political surveillance/guidance, expression and affiliation, convenience/information-seeking, and entertainment.
► Heavy political blog users tend to be involved in more cognitive and informational reasons for accessing political blogs rather than entertainment needs.
► Blogosphere could serve as an interactive forum for interpersonal discussion, yet it also could be an echo chamber in which political conversations only occur among like-mined individuals.