Pew Internet’s Blogging Study

I’ve been critical of Pew Internet before (their early podcasting study got seriously debunked). That said, I was keen to read their new report on bloggers and online activity:

A telephone survey of a nationally-representative sample of bloggers has found that blogging is inspiring a new group of writers and creators to share their voices with the world. Some 54% of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44% say they have published elsewhere.

Eight percent of internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog. Thirty-nine percent of internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs – a significant increase since the fall of 2005.

They do commit a common mistake in statistical gathering and analysis–too small a survey group. They only spoke to 233 respondents who were bloggers, which gives them a margin of error of plus or minus 7%. To get compelling data, they should talk to ten times that number.

Unfortunately, every respondent costs money, so it’s always a compromise between getting enough answers and spending too much cash.