Bloggers See Selves in Many Roles

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has a new report (260k PDF) on blogging. The organization says, “Blogging is bringing new voices to the online world” — and survey data include these highlights:

• 54% of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44% say they have published elsewhere;
• 54% of bloggers are under the age of 30;
• Women and men have statistical parity in the blogosphere, with women representing 46% of bloggers and men 54%;
• 76% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to document their personal experiences and share them with others;
• 64% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to share practical knowledge or skills with others.
• When asked to choose one main subject, 37% of bloggers say that the primary topic of their blog is “my life and experiences;”
• Other topics ran distantly behind: 11% of bloggers focus on politics and government; 7% focus on entertainment; 6% focus on sports; 5% focus on general news and current events; 5% focus on business; 4% on technology; 2% on religion, spirituality or faith; and additional smaller groups who focus on a specific hobby, a health problem or illness, or other topics.

Unfortunately, Pew persists in publishing its surveys only as PDF files, as far as I can discover.