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CYBER-2009-0403-Hollenbaugh_1P Type: research-article

CYBERPSYCHOLOGY, BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING Volume 00, Number 0, 2010 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2009.0403

Motives for Maintaining Personal Journal Blogs

Erin E. Hollenbaugh, Ph.D.

Abstract

Although much has been learned about political and news blogs, there has been a lack of research on personal journal blogs. They deserve further research attention because of the implications blogs have in many bloggers immediate social networks, as well as the opportunities for scientic inquiry in a rich and evolving communication environment. This study explored bloggers motives for maintaining personal journal blogs, or blogs that resemble diaries about ones personal life. Stemming from the uses and gratications perspective, antecedents (age, gender, loneliness, disclosiveness) and blogging motives composed a model for predicting the amount of blog use. Seven motives emerged from online survey data: helping/informing, social connection, pass time, exhibitionism, archiving/organizing, professionalism, and get feedback. Age, gender, loneliness, and disclosiveness predicted different motives, and the total model (age, gender, loneliness, disclosiveness, and motives) was useful for explaining 13% of the variance in the amount of blog use.
Introduction ne unique aspect of the Internet is the availability of opportunities to serve as both consumer and producer of content. Although some users may choose to surf the World Wide Web, taking in media content, others create their own content and use the Internet as a medium through which their voices can be heard. Blogging provides Internet users an outlet to create. Given the simple and free nature of current blogging Web sites, about 10% of the adult population in the United States has taken this opportunity to produce their own presence on the Web.1 Through this presence, bloggers can engage in personal communication with others,2 taking advantage of the interpersonal functions of the Internet. Weblogs, or blogs, are a channel of computer-mediated communication in which users post updates in reverse chronological order.3 Approximately 12% of adults and 14% of teens online in the United States maintain blogs.1 Although blogging activity has declined in recent years, the use of social-networking Web sites, such as Facebook, is very high.1 More than 70% of online teens and almost half of online adults in the United States use social-networking Web sites.1 A form of blogging is often included in social-networking sites, such as the notes function of Facebook or the blog function of MySpace. Given the prominence of text-based entries in traditional blogs and integrated into socialnetworking sites, it is important to examine the communication processes related to blogging. The two prominent types of blogs are personal journal blogs and lter blogs.4 Personal journals are composed of shorter posts concerning the bloggers life and internal self, whereas lters are devoted to external content.4 Although personal journal blogs are the most commonly maintained blog,4,5 they are not the most frequently researched. Instead, lter blogs devoted to external information, such as politics6 or news,7 dominate the scholarly conversation on blogging. These studies are often conducted on small samples.6,8 Though discoveries made about political and news blogs have been fruitful, much is left to be learned about personal journal blogs. Personal journal blogs fulll different roles in bloggers lives, and although they may not be as widely read as lter blogs, they may have far-reaching impact for bloggers and their immediate social networks. The research that does exist on personal journal blogs concerns the reasons why people maintain these Web sites. Examining the motives for blogging may provide an important component in our understanding of bloggers behaviors. The uses and gratications perspective The uses and gratications perspective (U&G) was chosen to guide this study. Early in the development of a new technology, communication scholars make several attempts to understand why and how people use that medium. Stemming from a collection of studies in the 1940s through the 1970s on media use, U&G has since emerged as a helpful perspective for understanding how people use media to fulll certain needs and motives.9,10 This perspective was informed by a functional approach to communication, which poses that an object is best dened by its use.10 Unlike the direct effects models of the mechanistic perspective, U&G is a more limited effects perspective that rests, in part, on social and

Kent State University at Stark, North Canton, Ohio.

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2 psychological antecedents of media use.10 Media use is embedded in a host of possible inuences. It is the U&G researchers responsibility to esh out what individual differences mediate the effects of the media on the individual.11 From this perspective, media use is goal-directed and active. Clearly, bloggers are active users of the media in that they are producers of media content, as well as consumers. Toward an understanding of blogging motives. Thus far, much of the research on computer-mediated communication has focused on motives of using the Internet as a whole12,13 or particular types of Internet use (e.g., social-networking Web sites,14 seeking health information,15 online support groups,16 one-to-one chatting17). To date, few U&G studies exist that examine motives for blogging. Simply lumping all types of Internet use into one motive typology may not be helpful, considering the inherent differences between producing and consuming media. A recent study examined the citizen journalists gratications for generating content online.18 Four gratications emerged: recognition, cognitive, social, and entertainment needs.18 These four needs seem to underlie the motivations for producers of Internet content. However, more investigation is needed to understand personal journal bloggers specically. A search of the literature revealed very few studies identifying motives for using personal journal blogs,19,20 only one of which was guided by U&G.21 However, this study was on personal journal blogs that centered on bloggers experiences with cancer. Due to the specic nature of Chung and Kims21 study and the less systematic methods of previous research,19,20 the present study builds on this research to explore the motives people have for maintaining their own personal journals. Potential antecedents of blogging motives. A core assumption of U&G is that social and psychological factors affect the motives for using particular media.9,10 Certain characteristics of bloggers themselves may predict both motives for blogging and subsequent blog use. Research in CMC and blogging specically has shown that particular individual characteristics, such as age, gender, loneliness, and disclosiveness, may impact the way in which people use media. These four individual characteristics may affect motives for blogging and blogging frequency. Age is one individual characteristic that likely impacts motives for blogging, as well as blog use. Research has shown that age impacts blogging behaviors and content. Specically, younger people are more likely to blog about personal experiences, and they are more likely to blog to keep in touch with others.19 Conversely, older bloggers are more likely to be motivated to blog to share their skills or knowledge with their readers.19 Sex appears to be a signicant predictor of Internet behaviors, such as disclosiveness in computer-mediated communication.22,23 Lenhart and Fox19 found that women were more likely than men to be inspired to post to their blogs by a personal experience, which may suggest that they would be motivated to blog for different reasons. Additional researchers reported that more women than men maintained personal journal blogs.4,24 Although studies have examined the impact of sex on certain behaviors, such as disclosing personal information, little is known about how sex may impact the

HOLLENBAUGH motives for blogging. For example, if previous research on sex differences in online disclosure holds true, women may be more motivated to blog for self-expression and to communicate with others. Loneliness is a psychological state in which people perceive their relations to be limited or decient in terms of quantity or quality.25,26 The blogosphere may be a haven for lonely people, and the effects of loneliness on online behavior have been explored by a number of researchers.2729 With regard to the effects of loneliness on CMC, two perspectives prevail. According to the social compensation hypothesis, people with less social contact will be more likely to use mass media.30 Unsatised with their face-to-face (FtF) lives, lonely people may ock to the media to fulll their unmet needs. McKenna et al.31 have applied this idea to the Internet, arguing that the reduced nonverbal cues of the Internet (e.g., visual anonymity) may help people who are socially anxious and lonely be more comfortable in their online communication. On the other hand, the social enhancement hypothesis is a competing prediction that posits that the Internet more often sets up a rich-get-richer environment. Sometimes, Internet users with extensive social networks and popularity increase their interaction online.32 Research has shown conicting results concerning these competing hypotheses.2729,33,34 Blogging is a useful context for testing these competing assumptions because of the potential for interaction and relating through this new media use. Disclosiveness is a generalized characteristic or trait of the individual representing that persons predilection to disclose self to other people in general.35 Stefanone and Jang2 explored the role of disclosiveness on the intent for peoples blog use. High revealers in their sample were more likely to use their blogs to stay in contact with friends and family. Disclosiveness has been included in other discussions of CMC,36 as ofine personality characteristics often impact online behaviors. Based on this research and the denition of personal journal blogs as containing information about the self, it is expected that the personality trait disclosiveness will impact blogging motives. The present study The purpose of this study is to explore the motives for maintaining personal journal blogs, as well as the varied predictors of these motives and the effects blogging motives have on blog use. Situated within the uses and gratications theory, this study will provide a unique perspective of Internet users, primarily because little research exists on personal journal blogs and on users as producers of media content. Undoubtedly, the future of the Internet will include more and more opportunities for people to broadcast themselves. Therefore, this study represents a turn toward that trend among Internet users. Stemming from the U&G perspective, three research questions guided this study. RQ1: What are the motives for personal journal blogging? RQ2: Which antecedents (age, gender, loneliness, disclosiveness) predict personal journal blogging motives? RQ3: How do antecedents (age, gender, loneliness, disclosiveness) and personal journal blogging motives predict amount of blog use?

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MOTIVES FOR MAINTAINING PERSONAL JOURNAL BLOGS Method This study used a cross-sectional survey design. Participants in this study completed an online questionnaire in the spring of 2008. Participants Participants were 299 English-speaking bloggers who responded to a call for research participation. There were certain restrictions to participate in this study. First, participants must have maintained personal journal blogs, which were dened in the call for participation as blogs that are composed of short posts concerning the bloggers life and internal self.4 Second, only bloggers who posted to their blogs at least once a month were asked to participate to ensure that participants were active bloggers. The sample was primarily composed of females (n 226, 75.6%; males n 68, 22.7%). Participants ages ranged from 18 to 70 years (M 30.34, SD 10.88). This sample represented a variety of ethnicities and locations. However, most participants were Caucasian (n 231, 77.3%) and American (n 245, 81.9%). Participants were recruited in March and April of 2008 in multiple ways: requesting that individual bloggers take the survey and post an announcement on their blogs, contacting featured bloggers on Blogger.com and Xanga.com to post an announcement on their blogs, and posting announcements on various discussion boards and listservs that bloggers may read. Most of the bloggers contacted were found through the random feature available on Livejournal.com and Blogger.com, through the most recently updated blogs on Wordpress.com, or through blogrolls (a list of blogs that the blogger reads). These recruitment strategies were similar to those used in other blogging studies.5,37,38 As argued by Johnson and Kaye,7,39 it is near impossible to generate a random sampling of Internet users. Instead, this study relied on the nature of the blogosphere as a community to generate a sample of bloggers. Overall, this study was announced to 297 individual bloggers, eight discussion boards, and six listservs. Bloggers were invited to participate in the study and to announce the study to their friends or blog readers. Procedure Upon approval by the Human Subjects Review Board, an online survey was constructed for this study using SurveyMonkey.com. After providing informed consent, participants completed measures of loneliness, disclosiveness, blogging motives, amount of blog use, and demographic variables. Instruments and measures Loneliness. Loneliness was measured using a shortened, 10-item version of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale.40 This version was successfully employed in a study of stress and burnout among teachers.40,41 This scale asks participants to indicate how often on a scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always) they feel the way each item describes, such as How often do you feel that you lack companionship? Five of the items were reverse coded, and scores were summed and averaged (M 2.60, SD 0.68, a 0.91), with higher scores representing more loneliness.

Disclosiveness. Disclosiveness, as an individual characteristic, was measured in this study with several items from Wheeless Revised Self-Disclosure Scale (RSDS),42 including I usually talk about myself for fairly long periods of time. To measure disclosiveness, participants indicated how much they agreed (1 strongly disagree, 5 strongly agree) with each of ve statements taken from the general version of the RSDS. Items were chosen based on their face validity to measure disclosiveness as a trait. Stefanone and Jang2 used a similar method in their study. Two items were reverse-coded and the scores were summed and averaged, with higher scores indicating more disclosiveness (M 3.01, SD 0.71, a 0.73). Blogging motives. A measure of blogging motives was constructed for use in this study. Similar to other U&G studies of new technology,12 a new assessment was constructed from qualitative data in a pilot study. Then, this measure was administered to the sample and subjected to factor analysis. Potential blogging motives were drawn from multiple sources, including blogging research,19,20 studies of personal home pages,43,44 Internet motives research,13 and open-ended data from a pilot study of 102 undergraduate students. Sixty items were created to represent the motives taken from these sources and compiled into a motives index. Following focus groups with 22 undergraduate students to check the face validity of the scale and scrutiny by the researcher to eliminate redundancy, the preliminary version of the Blogging Motives Index administered in this study included 56 items. Several items were generated for each conceptual motive to ensure that proper subscale reliability could be established. This method is similar to other U&G research involving motive scales.12,13 The Blogging Motives Index was used to assess participants motives for maintaining blogs. The 56-item scale asked participants to indicate how much each item describes their reasons for blogging by choosing a response from 1 (not at all) to 5 (exactly like my own reasons for blogging). Responses were factor analyzed to reveal the latent factors of participants blogging motives. After the exploratory factor analysis, scores on items composing each factor were summed and averaged to reveal a score for each participant. Means, standard deviations, and Cronbachs alphas for each motive are reported in the results section. Amount of blog use. The amount of blog use was measured with one item that asked participants approximately how many times per month they posted to their blogs, on average. Participants who maintained more than one blog were instructed to respond to this question according to the blog they use most often. Bloggers in this study posted to their blogs an average of 15.36 times per month (SD 12.46). Demographic information. Participants reported their age, gender, ethnicity, and country of residence to describe the sample. Age and gender were also used to address the studys research questions.

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4 Results Blogging motives Research question 1 asked what motives people had for maintaining personal journal blogs. To address this question, a two-stage principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted on the data from the Blogging Motives Scale. The initial factor analysis revealed 13 factors with eigenvalues of at least 1. The researcher examined each item, eliminating those variables that did not cleanly load on only one factor. Items loading with at least a 0.59 on only one factor were retained for further analysis. Twenty items were eliminated following this process. A second exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted on the remaining 36 items to rene the factor structure further. The second exploratory factor analysis revealed eight factors in the rotated factor structure with cleanly loaded items, and the scree plot supported an eightfactor solution. The eighth factor only contained two items with a bivariate correlation of 0.34 ( p < 0.001). Because this correlation was not high, the eighth factor was dropped. Therefore, the nal solution contained 25 items, accounting T1 c for 58.22% of the variance. Table 1 displays the nal sevenfactor solution, including each factors eigenvalue. The rst factor, helping/informing, accounted for 19.65% of the variance and included six items. Participants who blogged for helping/informing did so because they wanted to motivate, help, and encourage others by sharing information, as well as share their knowledge and skills. A mean index was computed by averaging the items (M 3.42, SD 0.90, a 0.86).

HOLLENBAUGH The second factor that emerged was social connection (M 3.34, SD 1.20, a 0.85). This factor consisted of four items and explained 9.79% of the variance. This motive suggested that people blogged to share information with and communicate with friends and family members with whom they may not talk on a regular basis. Participants who blogged for this motive also maintained a blog to send a message to many people at once, rather than one at a time. Pass time explained 8.27% of the variance (M 2.52, SD 1.14, a 0.84). The pass-time motive included blogging to pass time, to occupy time, and because there is nothing else to do. The pass-time motive was composed of three items. Exhibitionism, the fourth factor, was comprised of three items (M 2.45, SD 0.97, a 0.70). This factor explained 6.76% of the variance. People who scored high on exhibitionism blogged for attention, to gain fame, and because they thought people liked to read things about them. The fth factor was labeled archiving/organizing (M 3.93, SD 0.89, a 0.72), and it included three items. This factor accounted for 4.88% of the variance in the nal solution. Blogging for archiving/organizing included blogging to record thoughts and feelings for further reection, to organize thoughts and feelings, and to read what was written in previous posts. Sixth was the professionalism blogging motive, which was comprised of three items and explained 4.68% of the variance (M 1.41, SD 0.72, a 0.74). People who blogged for this reason did so to help get a job, to put their resume on the Web, and because they were required to for a job or school. The last factor, get feedback, contained three items. This factor explained 4.20% of the variance (M 3.31, SD 1.07,

Table 1. Factor Loadings for Final Seven-Factor Solution of Blogging Motives 1 To motivate others To help others To share information that may be of use to others To share my knowledge and skills To show others encouragement To communicate about a special interest or issue that I care about To share information with my friends and family who do not live near me To communicate to my friends and family To share information with people that I dont talk to on a regular basis To communicate to many people at once, rather than telling one at a time To pass time To occupy my time Because I have nothing better to do For attention To gain fame or notoriety Because I like when people read things about me To record my thoughts and feelings so I can reect on them Because it helps me organize my thoughts and feelings Because I can read what I wrote in previous posts To help me get a job To put my professional resume on the Web Because I have to for a class or job To get more points of view To get advice from my readers To get feedback from others who have similar experiences Eigenvalue Variance explained (%) 0.84 0.77 0.76 0.72 0.70 0.64 0.89 0.85 0.79 0.69 0.84 0.82 0.80 0.72 0.72 0.62 0.81 0.69 0.65 0.83 0.76 0.64 0.72 0.71 0.65 1.51 4.20 2 3 4 5 6 7

7.07 19.65

3.53 9.79

2.98 8.27

2.43 6.76

1.76 4.88

1.68 4.68

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MOTIVES FOR MAINTAINING PERSONAL JOURNAL BLOGS Table 2. Regressing Blogging Motives on Antecedent Variables Age b Helping/informing Social connection Pass time Exhibitionism Archiving/organizing Professionalism Get feedback
All betas are standardized betas. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Gender b 0.05 0.08 0.03 0.11 0.21*** 0.16** 0.06

Loneliness b 0.01 0.12* 0.18** 0.15* 0.07 0.08 0.06

Disclosiveness b 0.11 0.12* 0.05 0.25*** 0.04 0.02 0.12* R2 0.05** 0.05** 0.05** 0.08*** 0.05** 0.03 0.02

0.18** 0.06 0.13* 0.04 0.04 0.06 0.01

a 0.78). Participants who blogged to get advice and more points of view from others, as well as to get feedback from others who have had similar experiences, were motivated by get feedback. Effects of antecedents on blogging motives Research question 2 was posed to address the potential effects of age, gender, loneliness, and disclosiveness on each blogging motive. A series of multiple regressions were conducted. In each regression analysis, the four antecedents (age, gender, loneliness, and disclosiveness) were entered as predictor variables. Each emerging blogging motive served as an outcome variable. Taken together, these four antecedent variables signicantly predicted the variance in helping/ informing, social connection, pass time, exhibitionism, and T2 c archiving/organizing (see Table 2). However, age, gender, loneliness, and disclosiveness did not account for a signicant amount of variance in the professionalism, F(4, 285) 2.25, p 0.06, or get feedback motives, F(4, 285) 1.37, p 0.24. Although specic variables individually predicted these motives, these relationships should not be interpreted because the overall regression model was not signicant for these two motives. Table 2 lists all standardized betas in regressing blogging motives on antecedent variables, revealing the individual predictors of each motive. This study found that age impacted the helping/informing and pass-time motives. Older participants were more likely to blog to help and inform others, and younger bloggers were more likely to blog to pass time. Gender predicted the archiving/organizing motive in that women were more likely to blog for this reason than men. Loneliness affected social connection, pass time, and exhibitionism. Lonelier participants were more likely to blog to pass time and exhibitionism, whereas less lonely participants blogged more often for social connection. Finally, more disclosive participants were likely to blog for social connection and exhibitionism. Effects of antecedents and blogging motives on amount of blog use A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to examine the impact of antecedent variables and blogging motives on amount of blog use, as addressed in research question 3. Age, gender, loneliness, and disclosiveness were entered in the rst step, followed by the seven blogging

motives in the second step. The amount of blog use, dened as how often, on average, participants posted to their most frequently used blog each month, served as the outcome variable. The overall model explained 12.7% of the variance in amount of blog use, F(11, 269) 3.56, p < 0.001. The rst model, containing antecedents as the only tested predictors, explained 6.2% of the variance, F(4, 276) 4.56, p < 0.001. Blogging motives entered on the second step of the regression explained an additional 6.5% of variance in amount of blog use, F change(7, 269) 2.87, p < 0.01. Clearly, both antecedents and blogging motives are meaningful contributors in predicting amount of blog use. Despite the large impact that these variables collectively made on amount of blog use, only three variables individually predicted the outcome variable on the last step of the analysis: age, helping/informing, and pass time (see Table 3). b T3 Older participants, bloggers interested in helping and informing others through their blogs, and people blogging to pass time posted more frequently than others. Discussion This study has explored one social use of the Internet that is communicated to a mass audience. In this study, a new

Table 3. Individual Betas in Regressing Amount of Blog Use on Antecedents and Blogging Motives Amount of blog use b Age Gender Loneliness Disclosiveness Helping/informing Social connection Pass time Exhibitionism Archiving/organizing Professionalism Get feedback 0.21*** 0.00 0.09 0.03 0.18* 0.06 0.13* 0.02 0.09 0.10 0.01

All betas are nal betas on the last step of the regression. Final R2 0.13, p < 0.001. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

b AU2

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6 typology of motives for using personal journal blogs was developed using data from an online survey of bloggers. These motives included helping/informing, social connection, pass time, exhibitionism, archiving/organizing, professionalism, and get feedback. Participants reported the highest scores on archiving/organizing, helping/informing, social connection, and get feedback. Professionalism was the least reported of the motives. Age, gender, loneliness, and disclosiveness predicted the particular motives, which revealed interesting ndings related to blogging motives. Additionally, these antecedents and blogging motives were useful in predicting amount of blog use. Unlike much previous research that explores Internet users as consumers, this study identies the unique motives of bloggers as producers of content. Several of the motives found in this study align with existing research. For example, passing time or relieving boredom has been found in many types of media use, including the Internet13,45 and maintaining personal home pages.43,44 Social connection is also an established motive of Internet use12,13,45 and personal home pages.41,42 It is also well known that people use the Internet12 and personal home pages43,44 for professional advancement. It appears that blogs too can be used to further ones career. Bloggers may actually be compensated for maintaining their blogs, according to anecdotal evidence from this study. The remaining motives are somewhat unique to the context of blogging. Information-seeking is one Internet motive that ts the content consumer role of Internet users well.12,13,45 Conversely, as content creators, bloggers instead create and share information in their blogs. Papacharissi44 found this motive among users of personal home pages. However, in blogs, there was also a helping component to this motive. Participants shared information to help others in some way, which may communicate a sense of caring and support for their audiences. Exhibitionism, archiving/organizing, and get feedback were new motives that were not found in existing literature. Some bloggers appeared to crave attention, and in so doing, they revealed private information that may entertain others and help them to gain popularity or fame. Blogs were also reported to be useful for archiving and organizing bloggers thoughts or ideas. This nding suggests that blogs serve as an online journal or diary for some bloggers. Finally, unlike other functions of the Internet, such as personal home pages, people sometimes blogged to elicit feedback or advice from their readers. This motive points to the interpersonal nature of blogs, in which a community of bloggers may forge relationships through the medium. As expected in the U&G perspective, antecedent variables had an impact on participants motives for blogging. Older participants were more likely to blog to help and inform others, whereas younger bloggers were more likely to blog to pass time or out of boredom. Women were more likely than men to blog to archive and organize their thoughts. Participants who scored higher in disclosiveness were more likely to blog for exhibitionism. Loneliness had somewhat contradictory effects on blogging motives. Lonely participants were less likely to blog to establish and maintain social connections with others. This nding supports the social enhancement hypothesis in that the rich get richer.32 Less lonely participants sought social connections through their blogs, much like they do in the FtF

HOLLENBAUGH context. On the other hand, some truth was found for the social compensation hypothesis.30 Lonely bloggers were more likely to blog to get attention or for exhibitionism. Not surprisingly, bloggers who were generally more disclosive in their FtF lives were more likely to blog for social connection, as found in existing research.2 Self-disclosure has long been considered fundamental to relationship development.46 Therefore, it seems logical that disclosive people would be more interested in creating and maintaining relationships through their blogs. The model, informed by U&G, signicantly explained 13% of the variance in the amount of blog use. This amount of explained variance suggests that some variables appear to be missing from the model. Future studies may expose additional antecedents that help to explain the frequency with which bloggers post. Limitations and future research This studys ndings must be interpreted with the limitations in mind. In addition to the limitations normally associated with cross-sectional survey research design, there were also limitations resulting from the sampling techniques. Sampling was convenient, and participants self-selected into the sample. Although English-speaking bloggers from across the globe were able to participate in the survey, the majority of the sample was Caucasian Americans. Therefore, it is possible that this sample may not be an accurate representation of the population of personal journal bloggers, especially when considering a global perspective. Given this studys limitations, there are many avenues for future research. Psychological and sociological variables may be added to predict the motives of bloggers better. For example, narcissistic bloggers may be more likely to blog for exhibitionism. Extroversion could also potentially affect blogging motives, such as social connection. Now that the motives for maintaining personal journal blogs have been established, future studies should attempt to esh out our understanding of the multiple factors that play a role in blog use. In addition to blogs, channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are available for Internet users to broadcast themselves, and more technologies are likely to come. The motives for blogging found in this study can apply to these other social-media applications as well, as these sites often incorporate some type of blogging in their format. Future researchers should test this typology in more complex socialnetworking Web sites, such as Facebook, to further our knowledge on motives of new media use. It would be helpful for researchers to expand this typology in other types of Internet channels that allow for creation of content. Perhaps certain motives can be gratied more clearly using other channels. For example, the exhibition motive seems suited for YouTube, which allows users to upload videos for anyone to view. It is clear from other studies of social media that socially driven motives are directing the use of these channels.14,47,48 Future research on social uses of the Internet would benet from a broader application of motives to multiple producer-enabled channels of the Internet. Such a study could lead to a typology of motives for Internet producers, applicable across contexts. It is the researchers hope that this study has taken a step in that direction by exploring

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MOTIVES FOR MAINTAINING PERSONAL JOURNAL BLOGS blogging motives. This work is just beginning, as these social functions of the Internet are still in their infancy. Acknowledgments This manuscript is derived from the authors doctoral dissertation. The author wishes to thank her advisor, Dr. Nichole Egbert, and committee members, Drs. Paul Haridakis, Jeffrey Child, and Rafa Kasim, for their careful reviews of this research. A version of this manuscript was presented at the 2009 conference of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL. Disclosure Statement No competing nancial interests exist. References
1. Lenhart A, Purcell K, Smith A, et al. (2009) Social media and mobile Internet use among teens and young adults. Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet .org/*/media//Files/Reports/2010/PIP_Social_Media_and _Young_Adults_Report.pdf. 2. Stefanone MA, Jang CY. Writing for friends and family: The interpersonal nature of blogs. Journal of ComputerMediated Communication 2007; 13:article 7. http://jcmc .indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/stefanone.html 3. Herring SC. Slouching toward the ordinary: Current trends in computer-mediated communication. New Media & Society 2004; 6:2636. 4. Herring SC, Scheidt LA, Wright E, Bonus S. Weblogs as a bridging genre. Information Technology & People 2005; 18:14271. 5. Viegas FB. Bloggers expectations of privacy and accountability: An initial survey. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 2005; 10:article 12. http://jcmc.indiana .edu/vol10/issue3/viegas.html 6. Trammell KD, Williams AP, Postelnicu M, et al. (2006) Evolution of online campaigning: Increasing interactivity in candidate Web sites and blogs through text and technical features. Mass Communication & Society 2006; 9:2144. 7. Johnson TJ, Kaye BK. Wag the blog: How reliance on traditional media and the Internet inuence credibility perceptions of weblogs among blog users. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 2004; 81:62242. 8. Singer JB. The political j-blogger: Normalizing a new media form to t old norms and practices. Journalism 2005; 6:17398. 9. Katz E, Blumler JG, Gurevitch M. (1974) Utilization of mass communication by the individual. In Blumler JG, Katz E, eds. The uses of mass communications: Current perspectives on gratications research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, pp. 1932. 10. Rubin AM. (2002) The uses-and-gratications perspective of media effects. In Bryant J, Zillman D, eds. Media effects: Advances in theory and research. 2nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 52548. 11. Rosengren KE. (1974) Uses and gratications: A paradigm outlined. In Blumler JG, Katz E, eds. The uses of mass communications: Current perspectives on gratications research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, pp. 26986. 12. Charney T, Greenberg BS. (2002) Uses and gratications of the Internet. In Lin CA, Atkin, DJ, eds. Communication technology and society: Audience adoption and uses. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton, pp. 379407.

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Address correspondence to: Dr. Erin E. Hollenbaugh School of Communication Studies Kent State University at Stark 6000 Frank Ave. N.W. North Canton, OH, 44720 E-mail: ehollen2@kent.edu

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AUTHOR QUERY FOR CYBER-2009-0403-HOLLENBAUGH_1P

AU1: Please provide date of access. AU2: Double asterisks is mentioned in Table 3 footnote but not found in table body. Please check.