Dissertation

The Blogosphere: The role of Blogging
within the ‘spectrum’ of online music journalism
Luke Tregunna
BA Honours in Popular Music
University of Glamorgan
Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries
May 2012

Abstract
The purpose of this project is to study the online community of music bloggers to find their
role within the spectrum of online journalism. This project attempts to approach research in a
different way, by gathering opinions from key informants and participants of the online
blogging community. By researching the area though qualitative and quantitative research
methods, original data will be gathered and combined with existing theory to answer
questions already raised in this area.
The project uses self-completion questionnaires sent out to a sample of bloggers, probing into
areas such as motivations, audience, content and interaction. Similar areas are covered in self-
completion questionnaires sent out to the blog users. An online observation is also carried
out, studying these blogs from a user’s point of view but also to study the state of music
journalism on the internet.
Some results are very varied while others show strong correlations. From these a conclusion
has been drawn. The blogging community is one that thrives on appreciation and respect
between its members. The blogger’s motivation is to have a ‘voice’ within this community
and to reach out and connect with like-minded people who share similar tastes and opinions.
Dealing mostly with niche, unique or under-appreciated music the blogger’s go against
mainstream ideologies, posting about what they find interesting outside of the mainstream
music markets. By utilizing Web 2.0 technology and practices, together, they have provided a
vast source of reviews and information that has a dedicated readership.

Contents
List of figures iv
Acknowledgements v
Dedication vi
Declaration vii
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature review 3
3. Methodology 15
4. Findings 25
4.1 Self-completion questionnaires to Bloggers
4.1.1 Motivations
4.1.2 User/Industry interaction
4.1.3 Use of social/web based media
4.1.4 Advertising
4.2 Self-completion questionnaires to Users
4.2.1 Sources
4.2.2 Content
4.2.3 Interaction
4.3 Observational Findings
4.3.1 Number of posts per day
4.3.2 Similarities in posts
4.3.3 Advertising
4.3.4 Content on blogs
4.3.5 Referencing to other blogs/websites

5. Discussion 38
6. Conclusion 45
Appendix A viii
Appendix B ix
Appendix C x
Bibliography xi

List of Figures
4.3.1 A graph showing the average number of posts per day from the website sample, p30.
4.3.1 A graph showing the average number of posts per day from the blog sample, p30.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mike O’Hara and Ben Challis for their help and guidance in this project.
Also all the blogger’s and music fans who I contacted and who took the time to reply and
offer their valued opinions on the subject and Zoya Feldman at Hypemachine, all the
information was appreciated.

Dedication
I would like to dedicate this dissertation to the people who have helped me through the final
year (in no particular order)
Jack Barnett
Ceri Jones
Mari Tinmannsvik
Zoe Tough
Callum Lee
Rene Temple
Samantha Bull
Also everyone that has made this the best three years of my life!

Declaration
I declare that all the work presented in this dissertation is my own. Any work of other authors
that is discussed or referred to within this document is clearly cited as such within the text
and is referenced in full within the bibliography

Chapter 1 Introduction
Blogging has become a popular way of expressing opinions on music to an online
community. This research project plans to shed light on this popular online practice,
gathering information from the people involved. Although recognized as an aspect of modern
day culture, a study into what motivates the people behind these blogs and what role the
‘blogosphere’ plays within the spectrum of online music journalism has never been carried
out in this way – from the participant’s point of view. Throughout the project, questions will
be raised about all the contributing theories and where possible, answers will be given.
This research benefits studies in the areas of Web 2.0, online communities, citizen
journalism, participatory culture and music journalism by collating theories and ideas that
already exist and combining them with original research to draw new conclusions. Offering a
different approach to research in this area.
After the initial boom and popularity of blogging over 15 years ago, the blogging
world has evolved and in recent years has started to be respected as a valuable source of
information, one in which has become a career for some and identity for others. This means
that this study is taking place at a time where the blogosphere has become very important to
the people involved and also important within the online world.
From data gathered through questionnaires and observation, this study wants to
answer the question: What is the role of blogs within the spectrum of online music
journalism? During this, address questions about motivation, popularity, community and
content of blogs.
I believe that many people run blogs displaying their personal music opinion as part
of an identity, believing that their taste in music is somewhat ‘superior’ to their peers. This

will be done by utilizing Web 2.0 technology and by immersing themselves in on online
community.
Chapter 2 Literature review

To find the role of music blogging within the spectrum of online journalism I will first
have to examine the existing theories concerned with this area.
The introduction of the term Web 2.0, coined in 2004 after the dot-com crash (by
Dale Dougherty and made popular by O’Reilly media and MediaLive International) became a
‘useful conceptual umbrella’ under which the new generation of web applications could be
huddled. Although it has become a catch all buzzword to describe any kind of online activity
or technology, O’Reilly media has defined its outlining characteristics as - utilizing collective
intelligence, providing network-enabled interactive services and giving users control over
their own data (Madden, Fox, 2006). Under this ‘conceptual umbrella’ can be huddled online
businesses and activities such as social networking (Facebook, Myspace), Blogging
(Blogspot, Wordpress), Wiki’s (Wikipedia, Wiktionary) and alike. It’s a platform powered by
user-generated content, information sharing, user-centred design and collaboration.
It’s easy to get lost in the terminology of Web 2.0 and its limitations and capabilities
are so vast and forever changing, it’s difficult to define it by boundaries. Attempts to do this
demonstrate symptoms of a work in progress and the definitions of the boundaries seem
forever changing, as Web 2.0 changes. These definitions may not provide completely
watertight boundaries for the theory of Web 2.0 but they do offer some useful starting points
for my research.
Allen (2008) categorizes Web 2.0 under four headings:
 Design and functionality,
 Business models and advertising,
 Creating a new kind of media consumer (or Produser, Bruns, 2008),
 Democratization of the web.

Design and functionality along with creating a new kind of media consumer are most
relevant for research, the changing design and functionality of the web has allowed for the
increase in user-generated content and as a result of this a new kind of media consumer has
been created, one that now creates and actively seeks out new music and news. Though the
other points (business models and advertising, democratization of the web) are valid and can
produce some interesting questions.
It would be interesting to look at blogging from a business point of view – Can a music
blog, that relies mainly on popularity and advertising be a successful business for one or a
group of people? Or, have music blogs now become a valuable asset that need to be
harnessed, in some way, by the music business? Have they already been harnessed by the
profitable companies to sway public opinion?
In his later work (2009) Allen provides some similar, yet, more defined boundaries. But
in a twist on his previous work explains how Web 2.0 can be seen from four different
perspectives, which may be a better way to approach the Web 2.0 platform:
 Primarily technology,
 new approaches to creating information,
 empowering users to interact with content,
 Focus on the meme-like qualities of the web.
A focus from the perspective of seeing Web 2.0 as primarily technology would raise
some interesting questions and it is appropriate to touch on this in the research. Asking what
Web 2.0 technologies and applications bloggers are using to enhance their blogging
experience.

However, it must be made clear that the technology really just supplies the tools. It’s the
new approaches to creating information and empowering the users to interact with content
that have created the new kind of media consumer (mentioned in the Allen, 2008 study) and
in many cases - the blogger.
On par with Allen’s theory of the new media consumer is Bruns’ theory on the ‘produser’
(2008). Basically the same idea – In this new shared, networked environment (Web 2.0) the
boundary between producer and consumer has broken down allowing all users to be
producers and consumers of information and knowledge. But interestingly, Bruns praises the
technology of Web 2.0 that has changed information in recent years, making the information
accessible, shareable, networkable, remixable and extensible. Bruns has taken the perspective
of Web 2.0 being ‘primarily technology’ (Allen, 2009) and backs the importance of
technology to the produser. In relation to this research project this is helpful, a full
exploration of the role of technology isn’t necessary, but as mentioned it is very important so
drawing on the existing work by Bruns and Allen can help here.
Theories about what Web 2.0 is and where it is going, what it means and (interestingly)
what it isn’t are vast and display some very scattered theories. A full exploration of the Web
2.0 theory would be endless and ultimately useless for this research (as there are more
important theories to mention) so it’s important now to move on from Web 2.0 and look at
some of the theories and ideas that Web 2.0 has spawned, or at least made popular . These are
all ideas that contribute to the idea of blogging – convergence, citizen journalism, online
communities, and participatory culture.
Henry Jenkins has written a lot about convergence and participation within the fan
culture. Jenkins describes convergence as

The flow of content across multiple media platforms, the co operation between
multiple media industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences who will
go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want
(Jenkins, 2006:2).
One point made links nicely to the approach to this research and echoes some theories
mentioned previously about Web 2.0. Jenkins argues that convergence shouldn’t be seen
primarily as a technological process that brings together multiple media functions, but instead
as a cultural shift as consumers seek out new information. Convergence occurs through
individual consumers and their social interactions with others, with the added incentive for us
to talk among ourselves about the media we consume. This has become an alternative source
of media power and we are learning how to use that power through our day-to-day
interactions with convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006).
This leads on to Jenkins work on participatory culture, Jenkins definition shares some
of the aspects of other theories - Bruns’ theory of produsers and Allen’s theory of the new
media consumer – but with more focus on networking and Pierre levy’s term ‘collective
intelligence’, – a bi product of participatory culture - the idea that ‘None of us can know
everything; each of us knows something; and together we can put the pieces together if we
pool our resources and combine our skills’ (Levy in Jenkins, 2006:4).
Jenkins (2006) describes participatory culture as one:
 With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement,
 With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others,
 With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most
experienced is passed along to novices,

 Where members believe that their contributions matter,
 Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least
they care what other people think about what they have created).
Whereas Schafer (2011) says participatory culture has been built up from three
interrelated components
 narratives and rhetoric developed and distributed in popular and scholar discourses,
 specific technological qualities,
 specific media practices (Schafer, 2011: 167)
The idea of participatory culture is going to be important in this research, as blogging
virtually embodies this idea. When analysing all of these theories together a picture is painted
of a culture that relies heavily on networking, user-participation, creation, appreciation
amongst users and primarily a driving motivation that has yet been explained. My research
will take an insight into the motivations that power these online communities and the
individuals taking part in these practices.
With some emphasis being on appreciation amongst users and the urge to create and share
creations with others the phenomenon of online or virtual communities have flourished. A
virtual community is a term that has come to loosely designate all groups or networks that
enable individuals to communicate with each other on the internet (Song, 2009). This
statement seems simple enough but the workings of these communities go much deeper than
communication over the internet and already important questions are raised:
How can a "community" - something traditionally understood as physically embodied
and rooted in a particular locale - be "virtual"? How do computers that send and

receive data from a remotely located server create belonging, collective action, and
even interpersonal intimacy? (Song, 2009:1).
What is the motivation to join and participate in a community that is fragile,
temperamental and ultimately created in the head of the user? Song (2009) believes it is the
paradoxes of a virtual community that are so appealing to users. With a virtual community
the users can experience all the benefits of communal life with none of the burdens. The users
can reveal their 'true selves' free from judgement and with little social repercussion. Also,
alternative identities can be formed to similar effect. It's a perfect environment for people to
voice their views and concerns - without a doubt this carefree environment plays a vital role
in the participatory culture online and making it so appealing the people who use it, for
whatever reason.
The music blogging community is an example of a virtual community. Like every
community it thrives on common values and beliefs, shared interests and interaction, with an
unspoken set of rules and unique ways of showing appreciation to other users (Song, 2009).
Citizen journalism is a theory that has emerged in the last decade that is changing the face of
reporting. In the press-based online communities, citizen journalists are creating a network of
news sites that internet user’s are staring to trust (see award winning site Blottr) - especially
within the music business. But will these citizen journalist sites ever be more popular than the
mainstream music press?
Where is the line that needs to be crossed to say whether a piece of reporting is
‘amateur’ quality or professional quality? Using the South Asian tsunami in 2004 as the
decisive moment, Allan demonstrates how citizen journalism tested the barrier between
amateur and professional journalism, when citizen journalism became a prominent feature on
the journalistic landscape. The amount of first person accounts of the disaster, camcorder

footage and mobile and digital camera-shots uploaded to personal blogs and web pages all by
ordinary citizens had the news organizations in an awkward position. These corporations
were now relying on 'amateur' material in order to tell the story (Allan, 2009).
Allan points out that the extent of citizen journalism revolves around crisis reporting.
However, with media consumers now actively seeking out their own news, what makes this
report any more important, to the individual, than an album review or an informative piece on
a favourite band? If the big news corporations have had to rely on 'amateur' reporting for one
of the biggest stories of 2004, what's stopping the music press from relying on amateur
reporting to find the 'next big thing'?
These possible questions and theories need to be looked into to analyse the current
state of blogging, the importance of blogging within the spectrum of online journalism needs
to be recognised in order to relate and understand any research and findings. A blogging is
now continued to be explained using different theories and ideas, some of the background
theories already mentioned will re appear – Participatory culture and media, communication
and networking, readers becoming creators, social media.
Rettburg explains how the term weblog (or blog) has become a common word in the
language of today’s mainstream media and how they have made their way into our
consciousness at a remarkable speed. They are emblematic of a shift in uni-directional mass
media to participatory media, part of the history of communication and literacy, part of the
current change in journalism, marketing and social networking. Founded upon links, building
connections between related issues drawing on disciplines such as media studies, technology,
sociology and literacy studies, furthermore becoming a lens with which to see how these
fields have developed (Rettburg, 2008).

Music blogs first emerged as a manifestation of fandom that soon replaced more
traditional forms of independent media, such as fanzines, because of social and
cultural shifts in music scenes caused by technological developments such as the
internet, in the first place, and Web 2.0 after. (Jetto in Mousoutzanis et al, 2010:69)
The blogging trend grew at a remarkable rate; understandably ‘reporting’ on such a
large scale came with an unforeseen power to sway public opinion. Links have been made
between blogging and certain consumer activity. A study by Abel et al. References the work
of Y Liu et al, D Gruhl and E Sadikov et al. who claim that the analysis of blog data can
potentially be used to predict the success of a product (2010). Abel’s study reflects this,
saying that feeding an algorithm machine with blog data can increase a correct prediction
about the success of a product by 20%. This idea that the blogosphere can predict the success
of a product demonstrates the power it has. However, Abel fails to explain how genre or
origin of the music or film affects these trends. Only stating that distinguishing between
genres can improve the precision, not explaining how and with which genres (Abel et al.
2010).
This is one example of researching one aspect of the blogosphere, but it’s done from
an observational standpoint, collecting numerical data. This research project wants to utilize
the accessibility of the internet to gather data, but more importantly monitor the blogosphere
from the bloggers and users point of view.
The reason this is important to mention is because of a theory by Dewan and
Ramaprasad (2007) who examine the inter-relationship between music blogs, consumer
music sampling behaviour and album sales, believing the relationship between music
blogging and sales differs between the mainstream and the tail (the ‘tail’ is the large number

of niche markets who’s demand is now rivalling that of the mainstream market). Concluding
that blog users in the tail are more open to suggestion than the mainstream and willing to try
new music.
The report by Dewan et al. although presented as interesting only really highlights the
habits of today’s new music consumer and doesn’t offer anything that isn’t obvious when
really thought about. However, it does bring to attention the role of a music blog and
questions the success of blogs in different markets. Is it possible that the music blog has more
authority when discussing certain genres of music? Or does the mainstream market simply
not have place for citizen journalism on such a mass scale?
Like the study by Abel et al. (2010) this study of an aspect of the blogosphere collects
data from an observational point of view and relates it to another study area. It uses different
research methods to this project.
One affect of the blogosphere, is what Jennings calls 'the dilution of the authority
associated with editors and intermediaries' (2007:83). Before the internet was opened to large
scale commerce, intermediaries or 'gatekeepers' were responsible for deciding what music
became successful in the public's opinion. But now consumers have a way of voicing their
opinions on products via blogs and wikis, how important have the intermediaries become?
(Jennings, 2007). Jetto believes that blogging hasn’t diluted the authority of intermediaries,
but in fact replaced it, becoming the intermediaries between fan communities and the music
industry (2010:70).
Will the old style of reporting ever be replaced by blogging? Will the music audience
ever be converted to appreciate the power of blogging?

Glenn Peoples (2012) discusses the fact that on many online news sites, the album
review section has been dropped with little or no repercussions, in some cases the readers
didn't even notice as they stopped paying attention a long time ago. Peoples blames social
media, the fact that online there are more available sources to discover and hear about new
music that music fans are abandoning the traditional press in favour of blogs and other online
sources.
This seems fair enough, people are favouring the convenience of the internet for their
news and music. However, an article by Bruce Houghton on Hypebot.com shows site traffic
for Pitchfork.com decreasing over 12 month period. With Pitchfork being one of the most
popular music news sites on the internet, why is there a decrease in site traffic? Pitchfork has
become very genre specific, dealing mainly with obscure American Indie bands and praising
some lesser-known greats of the music industry. Could it be that people are no longer buying
what Pitchfork is selling? Has Pitchforks 'cool factor' simply dropped as the music it
promotes becomes stale or less popular?
Could it be that the nature of blogging is to go against the norm? Is the attraction of
blogging to rival the commercialism of mainstream journalism? And when the blog reaches
mainstream recognition is it then immediately ‘uncool’? Pitchfork isn’t a blog per se, but
these questions can be applied to blogging.
Bruns (2008) believes so. Stating that the produser uses these technologies (Web 2.0
technologies) to bypass the ‘stranglehold of the industrial model’ (Bruns, 2008:387)
highlighting the fact that the industrial model is not the most socially beneficial approach
available to discuss, share and report news.

These are the first theories that hint towards the motivations of bloggers – to rival the
commercialism of mainstream journalism perhaps? Or To bring attention to niche music, but
then why the drop in Pitchforks site traffic? If no one’s reading the popular sites or traditional
press for their music news where are they getting it from?
Are people still interested in music news or do they just want the music, quickly and
conveniently? This is a question that has a lot of evidence to suggest that in fact, people are
only interested in the actual music now. The amount of applications, programmes and Web
2.0 technologies that have started up in the last few years are possibly the strongest argument
for this. Sites such as Hypem.com, which aggregate music from a large collection of blogs
focus only on the music being posted and with over 30,000 views a day it’s popular
(Heilemann, 2007). Links to the blog are made available, but the chronological flow and
sheer vastness of the site detract from these links, keeping the users focus on the music.
Applications such as Spotify aim to catalogue and make available millions of songs at the
click of a button and are becoming increasingly popular, integrating with Facebook and
adding email and social factors to the app have made it easier to share the music, just the
music.
This possible shift in demand for music over music news is an area to research and
leads on to the main question of this project, what is the role of music blogs within the
spectrum of online journalism? What is the motivation to put time and effort into a blog for
little or no appreciation? Or are there people that appreciate a personal view on music? What
are these blogs posting about and is it just all about giving music fans song after song, or is
there opinion in the writing too? Does the modern music fan want to see opinion in the
writing or are they just interested in expanding their music collection?

Now that I have researched the area, taken into consideration the theories and
discussed them to produce some researchable questions I now need to apply what I have
learnt to formulate a methodology that will effectively address what I believe are the gaps in
research.
Chapter 3 Methodology
I will now explain my chosen research strategy, design and methods and discuss why
and how these are best for my research. As I will be dealing with people’s opinions and
interpreting an environment, I believe the best results will be gathered through a mixture of
qualitative, quantitative and observational research methods. My main area for research will
be the blogosphere and the people that make up that community, however to put my findings
into some context I will build up knowledge of popular music news websites. This will give
me something to compare my findings to, without a comparison aid I will not be able to
determine the bloggers role within the spectrum of online music journalism.
By employing a systematic observational approach (Denscombe, 1998) I can interpret
the environment for myself, by following an observational framework I can draw consistent,
reliable results from my research. A qualitative approach will best aid me in gathering data
about opinions, motivations and views. Through the same method I will gather some
quantitative data, this will mainly be to gauge the amount of hits on the blogs and how often
they’re updated (it will contribute to findings, but the most usable data gathered about these
subjects will be from observation). These can then be coded and cross-referenced to draw
conclusion, I will explain my methods in more detail later.

After my results have been gathered I will employ a coding system based on my
literary research. This will help relate my findings back to previously discussed theories
adding validity to my findings and making for more accurate conclusions. In my results stage,
all connections between my results and coding will be shown. Any quantifiable data
gathered from observation will first be averaged and then displayed in either graph form or
explained in the same way. After my results have been organised into a workable form, an in-
depth discussion of my findings will start to draw some conclusions and answer some of the
questions raised in my literature review.
I believe following a cross-sectional design will be most successful for the observational
part of my research. A cross-sectional design entails the collection of data on more than one
case at a single point in time in order to collect a body of quantitative or quantifiable data in
connection with two or more variables, which are then examined to detect patterns of
association. The cross-sectional design is defined by four points:
 More than one case,
 At a single point in time,
 Quantitative or quantifiable data,
 Patterns of association (Bryman, 2012).
With my research I will be studying 30 blogs. I couldn’t study the whole blogosphere due
to its size, but I believe 30 blogs will give me a varied enough sample to work with. To
ensure my data can be cross-referenced I will be studying the blogs I receive questionnaire
replies from. These 30 blogs will be gathered from a search in an internet search engine. If I
don’t receive 30 replies I will make up the numbers by picking blogs at random from blog
aggregator hypem.com. To pick my sample of websites for comparison I will use the top ten
results from an internet search engine, I understand that this approach to gathering the sample

is flawed but as its only purpose is to create a comparison tool I need to have the most
popular sites in my study. I will then follow a systematic observational framework
(Denscombe, 1998) to help me collect the same data everyday over two weeks (see appendix
A.1). I will start my observation at 12 o’clock midday everyday and study the posts on the
‘news’ tab of the websites and the blog posts from the day before, this eliminates any chance
of missing a post.
It’s important to have reliability, replicability and validity to my research design. Bryman
examines these in relation to the cross – sectional design.
 Replicability in the cross sectional design is likely as procedures from selecting
respondents, administering research instruments and analysing data are spelled out.
 Internal validity is weak. Cross – sectional design is more likely to provide
associations rather than actual findings.
 External validity is strong, especially when the data collected has been taken from a
random study (Bryman, 2012)
The fact that the observation will be of an online community benefits my research greatly,
reducing factors such as ethics and access. This will be the only part of my research where I
will be adopting a covert role, the advantages to this are as follows:
 All issues to do with access are eliminated or reduced drastically, I will not have to
gain permission or seek entry to the social setting. As this is online observation and
will be the study of Blog/websites I will not have to seek entry at all as the purpose of
the blog/website is to be seen and accessed.
 Reactivity will not be a problem either, as at this stage I will not be in contact with the
website/blog or the person/people running the website/blog.
 A reduction in ethical issues (Bryman, 2012).

By employing a covert observational method I want to immerse myself in the
blogosphere for an extended amount of time and make observations of the behaviours of the
people within that environment/community. This will help me develop an understanding of
the group and the culture and further help my analysis when it comes to writing a detailed
account of my observations. By adopting a ‘minimally participating observer’ role I can
maximise my observations while minimizing my interaction within the blogging culture
(Bryman, 2012).
This approach is bordering ethnography, though it is a grey area. I will be immersing
myself in a culture, using the blogs and websites in the way they are suppose to be used.
However, I will not be taking part in any of the social practices associated with this culture. I
will not be leaving comments or ‘likes’, recommending the blogs to friends or even running
my own blog and integrating myself into the community from a bloggers perspective. I will
just be observing the trends and behaviours. However, this method can only provide a narrow
viewpoint and understanding, I need to also interact with the key informants (through
questionnaires).
Observation offers the social researcher a distinct way of collecting data. It
does not rely on what people say they do, or what they say they think. It is
more direct than that. Instead, it draws on the direct evidence of the eye to
witness events first hand. It is based on the premise that, for certain purposes,
it is best to observe what actually happens (Denscombe, 1998:206).
Denscombe (1998) explains how participant observation depends on interpretation by the
individual and this can affect results. I’ll need to take steps in order to reduce the effects of
interpretation on my results. Denscombe explains three factors which often affect
observational research are:

 Frailties in human memory,
 Selective perception – the idea that the mind filters information as it receives it,
 Certain attractions to actions or signals depending on personal experience and taste.
Systematic observation can reduce these variations in perception. As this study will take
place over two weeks, a framework will help to make sure the same data is recorded each
time, providing consistent results.
The British Sociological Association’s approach to covert research is as follows:
The BSA is especially concerned with the use of covert methods which are most
frequently used by ethnographers. The BSA code clearly states that there 'ethical
dangers' in using such methods, namely that such methods violate the principles of
informed consent and invade the privacy of those being studied. (McNeill et al,
2005:100)
However, as the part of my research that involves a covert approach involves an
observation and study of WebPages that exist in the public domain and who’s main purpose
is to be seen and appreciated, the ethical issues usually involved with covert research aren’t
as valid.
Using some of the theories and ideas mentioned by Allen (2008, 2009) I can build up a
list of trends to look for when observing these blogs. I will be looking for trends across the
sample, these will include:
 (Users interacting with content) Similarities in content –
Bands/Artists/Albums/Genre,
 (Technology) Similarities in the social/web based media used – Youtube
videos/Soundcloud clips etc,

 (Advertising and business model) Amount of advertising,
 (Design and functionality) Interaction from users/readers.
I should mention, the ‘similarities in social/web-based media’ section is for the blogs
only. The reason for this being, the websites are typically very established companies, this
means the way they use social/web based media is so vast and hard to evaluate that it would
take up an unreasonable amount of study for this research project. This seems irrelevant as
the website observations are purely to create a comparison tool.
The second part of my study will involve gathering of qualitative and some quantitative
data through self completion questionnaires attached to emails.
I want to construct a questionnaire that combines open and closed questions, a
combination of qualitative and quantitative data gathering (see appendix, A.2). I want to
encourage the respondent to talk openly about their blogging experience/motivation/audience
but also gather quantitative data about their number of posts etc. The open questions also
encourage respondents to answer in their own terms, allow unusual responses, allow tapping
of respondent’s knowledge and is useful for exploring new areas (Bryman, 2012).
I’m anticipating some disadvantages to the self completion questionnaire method, the
main being not being able to guarantee the number of responses I get from respondents. I can
take steps to improve my response rates:
 Write a good covering letter explaining who I am, reasons for my research, why it’s
important, why the recipient has been selected and guarantee confidentiality.
 Clear Instructions and an attractive layout
 Begin with questions that will interest the respondent (Bryman, 2012)

As this approach will involve me asking personal questions about a person’s work/past
time/interest, I will need to take into consideration certain ethical issues and follow an ethical
code that respects my subjects. The British sociological association statement of ethics
stresses that:
 Informed consent must be obtained,
 Privacy and identity of individuals must be protected,
 Inflicting physical, social or emotional harm must be avoided (McNeill et al,
2005:101).
With all questionnaires that I send I will be asking if the people involved would like to
remain anonymous and also make it clear that any questions the subjects don’t feel
comfortable with answering are to be left blank.
Gaining access to a sample for these questionnaires won’t be difficult. Most of the people
I will be contacting will be bloggers who, typically speaking, have contact information on
their blog, at least an email address.
What I will be looking for:
 Usage of their blog – how often they post, how long they’ve been blogging,
 (Technology) What social/web based media they use, if any,
 (Advertising and business model) If they allow advertising,
 (New media consumer) Motivations – why they started, what they blog about,
 (Design and functionality) User interaction.
I will also be conducting research into the audience that these blogs attract (see appendix,
A.3). Using self completion questionnaires again I will see:

 How people find out about the music they like and where they get their music news,
 If this is mainly from internet resources, what sites they prefer,
 What they like to see on their favourite music sites/blogs – reviews, videos,
downloads,
 If they interact with the sites/blogs and how successful/helpful/enjoyable they find
this experience.
Once raw data has been gathered from the self completion questionnaires, I must analyse
my qualitative data. Following the principles outlined by Denscombe (1998) I can approach
my data in the correct manner and draw some accurate and usable results.
First, it is important to understand that to draw conclusions from qualitative data all
results must avoid any kind of abstract reasoning; all results must be grounded in the
evidence that has been collected. Following on and linked to this, all qualitative data handling
can never be void of all interpretation. Similarly, introducing unwarranted preconceptions
into the analysis will be avoided. It’s likely I will approach conclusions with some bias
having read and understood existing theories surrounding this area and this may interrupt my
reasoning. However being aware of this, I can harness my knowledge of existing theories and
use them to help draw better conclusions in my research (Denscombe, 1998).
Preparing, familiarising, interpreting (coding), verifying and representing the data will be
the next stage. It’s encouraged to involve an iterative process during this stage, constantly
comparing codes and concepts to my reading, known as the ‘data analysis spiral’ (Creswell in
Denscombe, 1998:289). Using the data analysis spiral approach is not a disadvantage but a
common practice within qualitative research (Denscombe, 1998).
Coding will be the most important practice during the interpretation stage. ‘Unitization’
(Denscombe, 1998:294) of the data will help with coding, for my self-completion

questionnaires the unitization will be vast from one word answers (yes/no) to interpreting
whole paragraphs as an answer to a single question. I will code opinions, use of expressions
and the implied meaning of statements along with my interpreted answers (Denscombe,
1998).
My coding categories will be derived from literature. Focusing mainly on Allen’s work
of 2008 and 2009 I will categorize the data under headings mentioned in my literature review
regarding Web 2.0 – Technology, new media consumer etc. After initial coding I will
prioritize certain data and develop a hierarchy of categories to reduce the number of codes
(Denscombe, 1998). For example, an answer about motivations that includes using youtube
videos on a post that is discussing a new album release could be categorized under
‘Technology’ and ‘creating a new kind of media consumer’.
Once my data has been presented, I can then start to apply my results to the theory in my
literature review and start to develop some generalized conclusions in my discussion section.
These will include concepts or hypotheses which may lead to a theory based on my research.

Chapter 4 Findings
In this chapter the results from my self-completion questionnaires and online
observation will be displayed. The chapter will be split into three sections for ease of reading,
one for questionnaires to bloggers, one for the questionnaires to users and one for the results
of my online observation. The subheadings within these sections relate to my coding method
outlined in my methodology and are the result of a reduction and hierarchical process
undertaken to refine my results and draw more accurate conclusions.
For my questionnaire results I will be dealing with mainly qualitative data so answers
with similar themes will be grouped together. It’s important to mention again, here, that
qualitative data analysis does involve a process of interpretation. I will group the answers
together depending on my interpretation of the answers given. As for the questions that had
multiple choice answers I will group similar answers together in order to produce a
percentage mark for each question.

An in-depth discussion of these results will feature in the next chapter.
Self-completion questionnaires to bloggers
I contacted 30 bloggers with a self completion questionnaire regarding motivations,
advertising, content/use of social media and user interaction. From these 30 I got 16 replies.
Although my questionnaire was divided into subheadings I analysed the questionnaire results
as a whole, any answer given was coded to the appropriate category.
Motivations
Every answer given within this category involved the idea of having a ‘voice’ and
being part of a community while simultaneously promoting bands they [the bloggers] were
fans of (Democratization of the web, Allen). Along with this came a sense of pride or
‘smugness’, 10 out of the 16 commented on their music taste being somehow superior or, at
least, unique compared to their peers, this was always mentioned as a positive attribute.
Given this, there was always a kindness or respect for the music they were writing about with
9 of the 16 claiming their blog was no place for negative reviews.
Then and now, it’s been about promoting music that we think is worthwhile that is
either un- or under-appreciated ... Really it started, like I said, as a way to get my
opinion on music I loved out there. It was never anything more than that.
(tympanogram.com, see Appendix B.1)
When I started my blog the main aim was to promote artists I love but through
blogging I decided to follow a career in the music industry

(flyingwithanna.com, see Appendix B.2)
When I was 16, I got really into music and music no one had heard of. I couldn't talk
to my friends about it as they had no interest in the bands so I started a blog in hope
that someone else would care, and read it. And they did!
(flyingwithanna.com, see Appendix B.2)
My music taste is very important to me and I love talking and discussing it, I soon
realised that a lot of my friends didn’t share my unique taste in bands.
(anon, see Appendix B.3)
The idea that blogging was a way to keep up with changes in technology/culture or
trends in the music/journalism industry were low with only 4 of the 16 mentioning this
(Technology, Allen). The same 4 mentioned blogging as an effective way to sharpen their
writing skills which benefitted them in other aspects of their lives, usually careers. It was a
hobby to these people more than anything else (New approaches to creating information,
Allen, participatory culture, Jenkins).
The first [motivation] is to maintain and practice my writing skills. I find blogging is a
good way to write short, quick, witty pieces about something you like.
(thesubjectivelistener.wordpress.com, see Appendix B.4)
The reason I started blogging was a fear of being left behind in terms of contemporary
music. Whereas, at the age of 15 or 16, I purposely went out with the intention of
listening to new music, by the time I was 20 I had settled onto a collection of bands

that I pretty much listened to on repeat, not letting much new music into my life. I
started a music blog to try and change this.
(thepigeonpost.wordpress.com, see appendix B.5)
The same amount mentioned that their blog was part of a career in journalism or the music
industry or they hoped a successful blog would lead on to a more interesting career.
However, no respondents said that blogging was their main source of income.
Making a living out of this has also been a motivation for this, and even before it
started being successful, being successful with it financially was still a goal
(theneedledrop.com, see appendix B.6)
I've received about 5 CD promos in the entire time I've had the blog ... - I've taken up
guest list for a gig once. I guess that was some sort of payment!
(justmusicthatilike.com, see appendix B.7)
User/industry interaction
I included questions about interaction between the bloggers and their users and the
music industry. This was to probe deeper into the bloggers role, to look at how they work
within an online community.
When asked about interaction from users (empowering users to interact with content,
Allen) the general opinion amongst all respondents was that it wasn’t as much as they would
have liked. Out of the 16, 6 said they had regular contact through the blog itself (comments,
emails) while 10 said they had regular contact through social networking sites, particularly
twitter.

Yes, they [the users] message me regularly through Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. I
respond to them as much as possible, too.
(theneedledrop.com, see appendix B.6)
I like to keep my blog free of comments. People always contact me through twitter.
(anon, see appendix B.8)
Not as much as I'd like, it's great getting comments from people and bands, it lets you
know you are on the right track and it's not a waste of your time.
(justmusicthatilike.com, see appendix B.7)
Although all bloggers said they had been contacted with suggestions for blogs (either
by bands, users, PR people) all respondents appeared very reluctant to write about these
suggestions, no response suggested they were happy to write about suggested items or
preferred to do so.
I always get bands suggested to me and I try to listen to them all, if I don’t like what
I’m hearing it won’t make it on to my blog.
(apocketfullofseeds.com, see appendix B.9)
Not always, it really all depends on whether or not I like the music suggested.
(thesubjectivelistener.wordpress.com, see appendix B.4)

Use of social/web based media
Although this will be covered in more detail in the observation stage, I wanted to
gauge the bloggers awareness of popular Web 2.0 applications and practices and to see how
they believe they utilize them (Primarily technology, Allen).
Every blogger said they use some kind of social media to enhance their posts, with the
favourites being youtube videos and soundcloud clips. 6 admitted to having downloads of
songs available on their blogs but were adamant these were legal and allowed to be
published. None of the results mentioned linking to the bands social networking sites or
websites, though this will be covered in more detail in the observation stage.
I want people to stay on my blog as long as possible so the more I have on there
without it being too much on the eye, the better
(alfitude.com, see appendix B.10)
Photographs, SoundCloud streams, sometimes streams from YouTube, sometimes
bandcamp streams (although these aren’t preferred as the post doesn’t then go onto
HypeMachine)
(basementfever.blogspot.com, see appendix B.11)
Advertising
This is one of the sections that can be summarized with a figure. When asked, 25%
said they had advertising on their blogs. 2 claimed it was to pay for hosting and didn’t bring
them any money, another 2 claimed they had been offered advertising opportunities but
turned them down. Another 3 agreed to have advertising but made an apology for it.

No - I've no interest in making 10 pence worth of advertising revenue and littering up
my blog with adverts for Kasabian!
(justmusicthatilike.com, see appendix B. 7)
I do have advertising, but I hope it’s not too much
(Anon, see appendix B. 12 )
Self-completion questionnaire to users
As with the questionnaires sent to bloggers, I sent 30 questionnaires to music fans and
people I knew actively sought out new music. Out of these 30, 14 replied offering their lists
of their favourite ways of finding music, this will help draw some conclusions to the public’s
use of the blogosphere.
Sources
The internet played a part in every respondents process of finding new music (new
kind of media consumer, Allen), 12 said they used websites and blogs as a primary source,
with just 2 saying they preferred forums. Magazines/newspapers were closely linked to
websites, 8 respondents said they regularly read magazines; however, the website
counterparts of these magazines were the most popular choices. Web 2.0 applications and
social media was mentioned by 12 respondents, with Spotify being the most popular, but used
as a listening device, not a way to find new music. The radio or TV music channels weren’t

mentioned by any of the respondents, 2 replies did say they had often downloaded music after
hearing it on a TV show or film.
Popular sites listed were NME.com, Metalhammer.com, Hypem.com, Pitchfork.com,
Drowndinsound.com and ultimate-guitar.com, each being mentioned by 3-4 different
respondents. Out of the 30 blogs I contacted to answer my bloggers questionnaire, only one
was mentioned in the user’s answers. This was theneedledrop.com and even then this was in
relation to the accompanying youtube channel, not the blog. One respondent made a very vast
list of, mainly foreign, blogs – Fluctuat, les Inrocks, Earmilk. But added that these were more
cultural and lifestyle blogs, rather than strictly music based (see appendix, C.2).
Content
Questions were included about what content users wanted to see on their favourite
websites, this could lead to conclusions about why the users preferred these sites over others
and what had become expected from online journalism. Video’s (either music videos or
documentary types) were the most popular with 10 out of the 14 expecting these, the same
number expecting song streams or samples. News (including tour dates) and reviews were
popular with 9 people wanting this, but with an emphasis on exclusivity and unreleased
material. It seemed they wanted content unavailable elsewhere. In particular with the blog
views, open-mindedness was appreciated along with unique taste, this was coupled with an
expectation to see a lot of scenes covered on the same site, 8 out of the 14 wanted this.
Interaction
The majority of respondents had never interacted with these sites in anyway
(empowering users to interact with content, Allen). None of them had interacted through

more than one channel, with the majority of interaction just being ‘liking’ posts either on the
blog/site or liking a post from the blogs Facebook page. None of the respondents had ever
emailed the people running the blog or site and only 1 regularly posted comments on their
favourite blogs. Every respondent had suggested music to a friend with 50% suggesting blogs
or websites as good sources for music news to friends.
Observational findings
As mentioned, this part of my research involved some online observation of music
websites and of music blogs. Although I am looking for the role of music blogging, I need to
also understand how the more ‘mainstream’ music news websites operate in order to make a
comparison. Just like with my questionnaires, my data was collected and complied to a
coding system, one with categories very similar to the coding system of the questionnaires.
As I was gathering quantifiable data, where possible I have included graphs in this section of
my findings to better illustrate the differences in data between websites and blogs.
Number of posts per day
Over the two week period, each website was viewed at 12 o’clock midday and records
of how many posts were made the day before were taken.
A graph showing the
average number of

posts per day from the website sample
A graph showing the
average number of
posts per day from the
blog sample
Similarities in posts
This section of my research can be split into three sub-sections. Similarities within the
websites, similarities within the blogs and similarities over the whole sample.
Similarities within the websites were very common. The trends in news stories took
on a certain ‘hierarchy’ over the two weeks. This seemed to be the importance of the story in
relation to the music world. The stories posted on the most websites involved the death of a
famous figure within the music industry i.e. the death of Jim Marshall on the 5th
April made it
onto every website being observed. Secondly, award ceremonies or the anniversary of an
important music event made it onto 80% of the websites on the day it happened i.e. Guns N
Roses induction into the hall of Fame on 16th
April, the anniversary of the death of Kurt
Cobain on 5th
April. Thirdly, News about upcoming tours, album releases and finally were
more genre specific stories.

Similarities in posts on blogs were very rare, with just two days showing a similar
post on more than one blog. Similarities in posts over the whole sample were just as scarce, it
appeared that even when the story was high on the hierarchy it was only mentioned on the
blogs that were posting the most stories a day on average.
Advertising
Websites
All websites had adverts, while 50% had adverts not associated with music or related
companies/events.
Blogs
With the blogs, 30% had advertising. Of that 30%, 30% had adverts unrelated to
music. Others were adverts for albums, related merchandise stores, adverts for hype machine
(this is when the blog was featured on Hypemachine.com).
Content on blogs
Out of every post from the blog section, 80% contained a video (usually Youtube) or
a promotional photo of the artist being mentioned. The written pieces averaged 250 words in
length and although it was expected, there wasn’t a ‘most popular topic’ of discussion for
these blogs and an exact copy of a post wasn’t recorded. Very rarely was there a link to the
artists social network page, though links to streaming sites such as soundcloud were present
on every blog at sometime over the period. Other links in posts included links to Itunes and
Amazon where the mentioned album could be bought.

Another popular feature on most blogs was a ‘tags’ section where topics mentioned on the
blog were compiled into a list at the side of the page and also a ‘blogroll’ where the bloggers
favourite blogs were listed.
Referencing to other blogs/websites
The only time another website was referenced on a website was when they were
associated through a publisher. For example, Uncut was referenced on NME, Classic rock
was referenced on Metlhammer (Future publications).
As mentioned, 90% of the blogs had a blogroll feature that directly linked to, on
average, another 13 blogs that the blogger liked. These weren’t all music blogs, ranging from
other media like Film and TV to hobbies and sports.

Chapter 5 Discussion
It’s hard to say if the research I have undertaken truly represents the role of blogging
within the spectrum of online journalism, my sample wasn’t as big as I’d originally intended
it to be, but then with the blogosphere being so vast it’s hard to say what a perfect sample size
would be for this project. However, I have perhaps given more insight into the culture of
blogging, its practices and values and the way it works within the online community as a
whole. From my results I can draw some general conclusions and theories. One thing this
research has done is support theories already laid out in my literature review. The work of
Allen, Jenkins, Bruns and Jennings can all be seen in my results supporting the fact that Web
2.0, participatory culture and citizen journalism are playing roles in our culture, roles bigger
than we may have already realised.
I believe my research strategy was the best possible way to research the area, but like
I mentioned it should have been done on a much larger scale. Taking a more ethnographic
approach over a purely observational approach, would have given me another set of results to
analyse but that just wasn’t possible for a project of this size.

I was expecting some of my results, particularly from the questionnaires, to really
surprise me. I developed the questionnaires specifically to encourage more in-depth and
ultimately more surprising answers but this was not the case.
It appears that the main motivation for blogging was to be part of an online
community, one that allows the user to show their ‘true self’. A community that allows
opinions, interests and personality to be vocalized without the fear of ridicule and that are met
by like-minded, excepting people. According to Song (2009) it is in fact these qualities that
make the online community so appealing to millions of people, so the popularity of this
answer wasn’t a surprise. Jennings (2007) work, points to a case of a fan using the online
community to find like minded people and to discuss his favourite band, so this wasn’t a
surprise result but I was expecting there to be a lot more arrogance to the blogging
community. Like I mentioned in my results there was a certain smugness and a feeling that
their musical taste was better than others, but it never appeared to be malicious in anyway. It
was more a feeling of uniqueness that was coupled with a desire to find people that shared
similar tastes in music and perhaps offered some appreciation of it. This idea of uniqueness or
appealing to a niche audience was reflected in the observational stage of my research,
particularly in the ‘similarities in posts’ section. The blogs very rarely posted about the same
things, this is likely the culmination of two things: they’re posting for an audience that visit
these blogs to satisfy whatever urges they have to find new music and also because, why
would you post a story or an album review on your own blog that has already been written
countless times in the mainstream press? The role of the blogosphere has likely become a
platform, feeding the niche markets with material and keeping them active. They have no
interest in posting similar stories to The NME or the Billboard 100, it’s not what the bloggers
want to do and it’s not the reason the users visit the blogs.

I was expecting the idea of the advances in Web 2.0 and technology to play a bigger
role, perhaps the idea of ‘moving with the times’ and embracing the ideas would be more
popular. In some respects this is true; the idea of convergence is present through all these
blogs and websites. The popular use of social media sites and web-based media on nearly
every blog shows convergence happening, but it was never recognised as an important aspect
of blogging. This is perhaps just due to the fact that blogging has now been popular for over
15 years and this embrace of web technology has become the norm.
One of the questions raised was regarding people’s desire for music news and if this
desire still exists. I embraced aggregator sites such as Hypem.com for my research, but this
idea of stockpiling thousands of songs available at a click is becoming more and more
popular and no one’s questioning if this is good or bad. From my research it appears that
users aren’t necessarily interested in reviews anymore, very little respondents listed reviews
as something they look for from their music sources, which is surprising, but then why would
you need a review when Spotify lets you stream the album for free and you can decide for
yourself? That’s not to say the blogosphere isn’t completely unaware of this fact or at least it
doesn’t seem to be. The amount of videos, streams and downloads posted on the blogging
platforms everyday shows that the bloggers know people are more interested in hearing the
music than reading about it and the music has to be made available if they want to continue
getting readers. A respondent actually said ‘I want people to stay on my blog as long as
possible so the more I have on there without it being too much on the eye, the better’
(Alfitude.com, see appendix, B.10). It’s this idea that gives the blogs an edge over the
mainstream music sites, the bigger sites do post videos and the occasional stream to an
album, but it’s happening on the blogs everyday and in quantity. Brun’s mentions this, that
the produsers are using the advances in technology to ‘bypass the stranglehold of the

industrial model’, they’re giving their readers want they really want, which appears to be
access to content quickly and efficiently through entertainment.
It’s this bypass in the industrial model that is perhaps accountable for the severe
difference in advertising between the blogs and the websites. Not only does advertising
hinder accessibility to the content, but it’s a badge of commercialism and the mainstream. If
the role of blogging is to go against mainstream ideology than there is no place for
advertising. Jetto (2010) believes that music blogs struggle to remain authentic and maintain
a level of cultural autonomy, though this contradicts my most popular motivation result
which was to just have a voice within an online community. Some bloggers said they get
money from advertising to pay for hosting of their blogs and advertising for products relating
to their blog (clothing stores, reviewed albums) was common but it wasn’t nearly to the
extent of the websites. Most commonly on websites there would be three banners adds, all
advertising the same product on one page, quite often being adverts for credit cards or cars.
Allen (2008) mentions business models and advertising as being one of the key aspects of
Web 2.0, but with blogging being a phenomenon that’s been born out of the possibilities of
Web 2.0 it seems to have yet harnessed the advertising aspect and if what I have theorized
here is true, it never will.
It’s the sheer amount of information posted by the websites that makes them more
popular. On average these sites were posting 8 times more posts a day than the blogs and they
all involved news stories about celebrities, well known names or ‘legends of the scene’ and
this was just in the ‘news’ section of the website, not including the album reviews. On the
other hand, the majority of blog posts were album reviews, with streams and download links
to the album. Relating this to the report by Peoples (2012) mentioned in my literature review,
could the review aspect of music journalism have now been left in the hands of the music
bloggers?

This could be evidence that blogging’s role is more review based than news based. It would
make sense; taking into account the popular idea of having a voice in the online community it
seems only logical that opinions on music would take shape in the form of a review.
However, this would go against what I originally mentioned about users not necessarily
wanting news anymore when a vast amount of music is available for listening for free. But,
this is a great example of ‘users interacting with content’ (Allen, 2009). From the users
perspective too, while observing I noticed that the readers want to comment on posts and link
them to their social networking pages. It’s happening across the whole spectrum but there is a
more personal feel to commenting on a blog, as if blogs welcome opinions as well as display
them. Instead of the usual brash statements that appeared over the websites comment
sections, the blog’s comments section was smaller but had more appreciation and curiosity
from the readers. This offers some insight into the question’s Song (2009) raises in my
literature review regarding online communities and what is the motivation to join and
participate in a community that is fragile, temperamental and ultimately created in the head of
the user? The community isn’t created in the head of the user, it shares the same elements of
the strongest online communities such as those found on Facebook or Twitter as is very real.
They both thrive on uniqueness and appreciation for others views and opinions, an aspect
also shared with Jenkins theory of participatory culture. The only difference is this isn’t a
relationship between one person and another or one blogger and one reader. It’s a relationship
between the blogosphere as a whole with all its information and the community of internet
users that see the blogosphere as a vital source of information to be used and appreciated.
This might be the reason the blogosphere will never rival the mainstream press. In my
Literature review I raised the question: will citizen journalism sites ever be more popular than
the mainstream press? Although it may beat the mainstream on size, the blogosphere will
never be more popular than the mainstream press. Whether it has the audience to rival is

another question, it just seems so ‘sparse’ in content. In the questionnaires to users a popular
answer about content was they wanted a lot of news from different scenes and that’s just not
something a single blog offers. Like I mentioned, the blogosphere as a whole might offer
more information about a certain scene than one person could need but that requires a lot of
time and effort on the user’s part, I just don’t know if that fits in with the ‘information-on-
demand’ nature of the internet.
I believe the blogging community with its practices, rituals and relationships has naturally
evolved into what it is today. From my research it seems that what was once quite a popular
Web 2.0 phenomenon has gone through a natural filtration process, leaving the blogosphere
occupied by a certain kind of user. On one side there’s the bloggers who have found a place
to review and display their, often unique, musical taste to a community of like-minded
people. In return for this they are appreciated through a series of rituals that encourage and
motivate the bloggers to continue what they do. By using the tools made available to them by
Web 2.0, the bloggers have managed to entertain as well as communicate and through a range
of inter-connected online social platforms have built a relationship with the users of the
blogosphere, a community most are proud to say they belong to. This pride comes from what
it represents, a platform virtually free of commercialism and capitalism, and a small, yet
strong stance against the mainstream.
On the other side the users of this infinite source of opinions and information, use it to
seek out niche markets or under-appreciated music. They search to see their tastes reflected
back at them on a computer screen and they want to discuss these tastes and show their
appreciation as part of a group of fans, no matter how big or small that group is.

Chapter 6 Conclusion
This paper’s aim was to offer a conclusion on the role of blogging within the
spectrum of online journalism. By contacting and observing the community, research was
carried out into the people that make up the community, the motivations behind what they do
and what they use to do it. In the process more light was shed on the state of online
journalism and how it works together and the relationship between the multiple platforms for
new music and new music news. It was a study of participatory culture, citizen journalism,
online communities and Web 2.0 in action. Although it didn’t offer up any real surprising

results, it was unique in that it researched the blogosphere from the point of view of the
people involved as well as with an observational approach and its validity in the field comes
from this truth.
This study hasn’t supported my hypothesis, it has provided a deeper, more interesting
answer. My ‘discussion’ section offers more detailed explanation of themes covered but to
summarize: I believe the blogging community with its practices, rituals and relationships has
naturally evolved into what it is today. From my research it seems that what was once quite a
popular Web 2.0 phenomenon has gone through a natural filtration process, leaving the
blogosphere occupied by a certain kind of user. On one side there’s the bloggers who have
found a place to review and display their, often unique, musical taste to a community of like-
minded people. In return for this they are appreciated through a series of rituals that
encourage and motivate the bloggers to continue what they do. By using the tools made
available to them by Web 2.0, the bloggers have managed to entertain as well as
communicate and through a range of inter-connected online social platforms have built a
relationship with the users of the blogosphere, a community most are proud to say they
belong to. This pride comes from what it represents, a platform virtually free of
commercialism and capitalism, and a small, yet strong stance against the mainstream.
On the other side the users of this infinite source of opinions and information, use it to
seek out niche markets or under-appreciated music. They search to see their tastes reflected
back at them on a computer screen and they want to discuss these tastes and show their
appreciation as part of a group of fans, no matter how big or small that group is.
My research was limited by size and language. Like I’ve mentioned before, this
research project wasn’t completed on nearly a big enough scale to draw any definite theory or
conclusion but what it has done is study the blogosphere from the view point of the people

involved. I believe that self-completion questionnaires was the best method to use to do this
as they encouraged the bloggers to speak personally and in-depth about their blogging
experience. Interviews with the bloggers would have also been a great way to probe into
motivations behind blogging and opinions on the community from a bloggers point of view,
but I had to pick the method that could be used on as larger scale as possible, in that respect
interviewing just wasn’t appropriate.
An interesting avenue to take now would be to draw ethnographic research data from
getting involved in blogging to point of owning and running a blog and integrating yourself
into the community. A study like this would rely on the researcher’s personal experience and
I imagine, would answer questions about motivations and roles in more detail. A study into
blogs from different countries would also, I believe, bring up some interesting results,
particularly on content and community levels. I was unfortunate that I could only really
monitor English speaking blogs that could have been influenced by any number of things,
particularly culture.
So where does the research go now? An interesting question to answer would be
where does blogging go now? I proposed the idea of a filtration process that has gotten the
blogosphere to the state it is in now, but where does it go from here? Will this community
eventually be populated by so many album downloads that it will become overwhelming and
eventually useless? Or will it grow, rival the mainstream and become the main source for
music news?
The implications with any future study will be the same as I faced with mine. Also the
evolving nature of the online world means that the significance or popularity of blogging is
unknown for the future.

Appendices A
Appendix A.1
Name of
website
PPD Social/web based
media
Adverts
Per page
Similarities in
posts
Content Reference
to other
sitesT F C
Y/N Number Videos Stream D/loads
NME 16 70 24 6 1 Y 6 5 1 0 1

Appendix A.2
Questionnaire
First of all I would like to thank you for agreeing to take a few minutes to answer this
questionnaire for me, it’s very much appreciated. The data collected from the questionnaire
will go towards a research project I am writing for my University dissertation. The
dissertation has been designed to discover what role blogging has within the spectrum of
online music journalism and your input will help me get a better insight into the
motivations, content and audience of music blogs.
I would like to reassure you now that if you wish, your Blog name will remain completely
confidential (answer below) and you don’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to.
Would you like your Blog name to remain confidential? Yes No
I have divided the questionnaire into sections; this is just for ease of reading. I do encourage
you to answer the questions as fully as possible and feel free to elaborate on any answers.
Where there are multiple choice/ yes- no answers please delete the irrelevant answers.
I have left a section at the bottom where you can add anything else that you would like to
about your blogging experience.
Thanks again, Luke Tregunna. (Third Year BA (Hons) Popular Music, Atrium University,
Cardiff, UK
Motivations
1. What would you say your main motivation for blogging was?
Or, what do you wish to achieve with your blog? (By this I mean do you like to promote bands
/artists you love? Or, do you like to inform your readers about new releases? Etc)
2. What made you decide to start a blog?
3. Would you say you have strong views about music that you like to express through your
blogging?
4. Your blog seems quite successful, has this changed your motivation for blogging since you
started?
Yes No
If Yes, why do you think this is?
5. Do you get paid for blogging?
Yes No

Your blogs content
1. How often do you update your blog?
Once a day or more Once a week 2-3 times a week a few times a month
2. Typically, what do your blog posts usually consist of? (album reviews, single reviews, artist
Bios, music news etc)
3. With so much music news and new bands emerging everyday how do you decide what goes
into your blog?
4. Are there any bands/artists that feature regularly on your blog? If so, what is the reason for
this?
5. Do you regularly use other multimedia on your blog to enhance your posts? (Youtube
videos, streaming, photos)
6. Particularly do you post download links for albums or songs?
Yes No
7. Do you have advertising on your blog?
Yes No
Audience
1. Who do you hope you reach with your blog?
2. Do you have a lot of contact with the readers of your blog?
3. Do your readers ever suggest ideas for posts?
Yes No
If Yes, do you always post about what’s suggested?
Information about your blog
Name of your blog:
How long has your blog been running?
Less than a year 1-2 years 3-4 years 5 years+
How many hits do you get in an average week?
Less than 10 10-100 100-300 300-500 500-1000 1000+

Appendix A.3
Questionnaire
I would like to reassure you now that if you wish, your name will remain completely
Would you like your name to remain confidential? Yes No (delete as appropriate)
I encourage you to answer the questions as fully as possible and feel free to elaborate on
any answers. Where there are multiple choice/ yes- no answers please delete the irrelevant
answers.
Cardiff, UK
1. Do you regularly search for new music and music news either on the internet or
through other sources? (Please note: If the answer to this question is ‘No’ then the
rest of the questionnaire can be ignored)
Yes No
2. How do you find out about new music and/or music news? – If this is mainly internet
sources, what sources are these? List websites, forums etc. (if the answer is
something other than online sources skip to question 8)
1. How often do you actively search for new music and/or music news
 More than once a day
 Once a day
 2-3 times a week
 Once a week
 Less than once a week

2. What are you looking out for or what do you like to see on your favourite music
sites? – downloads, reviews, videos etc
3. Do you ever recommend these music sites or blogs to friends?
4. Have you ever recommended new music to friends?
5. Have you ever interacted with these sites? – Left comments, ‘liked’ posts, sent
emails. If so, elaborate, why did you do this? How often do you do it?
6. Do you regularly use any music based social media? (Spotify, Soundcloud, lastFM,
Facebook music pages)
Yes No
If so, elaborate on how you use them.
7. Why do you search for new music? – This question is regarding motivations, I want
to know why you take the time to search for new music and music news.
Details
First name:
Age:
Any other comments:

Appendices B
Appendix B.1
Questionnaire
Cardiff, UK
Motivations
My initial motivation for starting the blog was because I saw other music blogs, and I
knew I could add something to that conversation that was going on around new music.
Then and now, it’s been about promoting music that we think is worthwhile that is
either un- or under-appreciated.
Sheer stupidity. Just kidding.
Really it started, like I said, as a way to get my opinion on music I loved out there. It was
never anything more than that.

blogging?
I wouldn’t say my views are “strong” per se. I just am confident in my taste in a broader
sense. In that way, I guess it’s strong. But I think I’m good at identifying what is
worthwhile for people to spend their time and/or money on. That sounds sort of
arrogant, but I think it’s really more a need to share the happiness I get from music. I
love when people catch a similar spark from a band or song.
started?
Yes No
In some ways it has. I feel the need to get more content out to the world since we’re
lucky in how much music we’re sent. I feel like that’s our responsibility for being
successful – more bands entrust us with their music, so we need to be constantly
listening.
Yes No
I suppose that depends on what you mean by ‘paid.’ We get money for the ads we run,
and that pays for our hosting, but we don’t get spending money from it.
Your blogs content
We put up 4 posts each day, Monday through Friday. We take the weekends off.
Two posts per day are just of new videos without a whole bunch of commentary. The
other two posts tend to have an mp3 or stream in them, with a bit more background on
the band and the release its from.
into your blog?
We have a “policy” about not needing to be the first to post new material; I like a little
more thought to go into the posts than just “holy shit this is new, you have to listen.”
Beyond that, I let our writers talk about what they’re into. I don’t ever tell anyone that

they have to write about anything specific. So basically, it’s whatever we’re into that
day.
this?
There isn’t anyone that gets regular coverage on the blog. We make a point to talk about
the local bands when they have new material, but there isn’t any one band that
dominates our coverage. We try to be more comprehensive, and not just a gossip mill
for any single artist.
We always have a photo with each post, and a video if it’s warranted (and obviously
when we just post a video.)
Yes No
If a song is made available for free download from the band or their label or PR people,
we will post it for downloading. Otherwise, we use soundcloud or Bandcamp streams
where necessary.
Yes No
Yes we do. I hope it’s nothing that’s too interfering.
Audience
We hope to reach anyone who is open to good music, or open to new music they haven’t
heard before.
Not really. We don’t have a big community of commenters (although that would be
cool), and we occasionally get emails about the blog, but not very often.
Yes No
Every so often someone will suggest something, but we don’t ever feel that we have to
post about it.

Name of your blog: tympanogram
Less than 10 10-100 100-300 300-500 500-1000 1000+
Any other comments?
Thanks for asking us to be involved. Hope our answers were helpful.

Appendix B.2
Questionnaire
Would you like your Blog name to remain confidential? No
Cardiff, UK
Motivations
When I started my blog the main aim was to promote artists I love but through blogging I decided to
follow a career in the music industry and so now my main motivation for blogging is to make
contacts, use it as a asset to my CV.
When I was 16, I got really into music and music no one had heard of. I couldn't talk to my friends
about it as they had no interest in the bands so I started a blog in hope that someone else would
care, and read it. And they did!

blogging?
No, some of my reviews etc. are opinionated but in general its just music I like, rather than music I
don't.
started?
Yes
After I found more about the world of blogging, I realised it was quite well respected to
write a music blog in terms of promotions/labels etc. As I now want to follow a career in the
industry, my blog being successful has helped me to get internships etc and I want to
continue to make it successful so I can use it in more positive ways.
When I started blogging I also didn't realise many of the perks, such as free CD's, getting
albums early, glist for gigs, festival tickets etc. which is definitely an influence on why I continue to
write a blog. It's also been a really good way to establish connections with artists, as they often know
who I am if I tell them I write my blog.
No although I have been offered.
Your blogs content
2-3 times a week
I do a lot of new music posts, and music news, posting videos etc. When I have more time I will do
album/gig reviews etc.
into your blog?
I just put on what I love!
this?
Yes there have been some bands featured music more than others. This is mostly because I
like the band a lot. Also because if the band is quite active, for example, releasing lots of new
material/videos/gigging a lot etc. then I will write about them more than an artist who
doesn't do much.
Use Youtube and Souncloud a lot. Photos too.
Yes, only if its been allowed by the PR/label/artist.

No
Audience
People who enjoy the music I am posting, promoters and people in the industry who might
consider signing/putting a gig on with some of the artists I write about.
I use twitter a lot and have a facebook which I don't really use. Sometime people will contact
me via email or comment about things they like/don't like.
Yes
No, a lot of them suggest me bands, which I always listen to but don't always necessarily write
about.
Name of your blog: Flying With Anna
1-2 years
500+ (usually 3000+)
Any other comments?

Appendix B.3
Questionnaire
Would you like your Blog name to remain confidential? Yes
Cardiff, UK
Motivations
I saw other music blogs and wanted to get involved, voicing my opinion on new music.
My music taste is very important to me and I love talking and discussing it, I soon realised
that a lot of my friends didn’t share my unique taste in bands.

Like I said, I just wanted to get my opinion about new music out there.
blogging?
Not so much strong, I don’t ever tell someone they’re wrong for listening to different to me.
But i do like recommending music.
started?
Yes No
It has a bit, I get so much stuff sent to me that I feel I have to include some of that.
Yes No
I get paid a bit but it all goes on hosting
Your blogs content
Usually videos followed by a bit of commentary.
into your blog?
I just post what i think is cool and worth being listened to.
this?
I try and mix it up a bit.
Usually videos and photos

No
Yes
Audience
people that want to listen to some good music that perhaps they haven’t heard before.
Not really, I have a few comments on posts and stuff, but nothing big.
Yes No
Name of your blog: Anon
1-2 years
500-1000
Any other comments?

Appendix B.4
Questionnaire
Cardiff, UK
Motivations
There are two motivations for blogging. The first is to maintain and practice my writing skills. I find
blogging is a good way to write short, quick, witty pieces about something you like. The second
motivation is to expose people to the music I like. I used to spread my recommendations through
word-of-mouth or mixtapes, but blogging lets me reach a wider audience and centralizes/archives
everything I have been listening to.
I wanted to have something that demonstrated my writing other than my journal; something that
others could read and critique.

blogging?
I do have strong views about music. Although, I understand that other people have the same right to
their strong views about music. Just because I think something is the greatest doesn’t mean
everyone else will.
started?
Yes No
Yes No
Your blogs content
My blog generally consists of my personal taste in music. I wouldn’t say I am reviewing the
music/artist, just merely saying I like them. I try to steer away from negative posts. If I don’t like
something I won’t write about it.
into your blog?
I try to keep my posts short and to the point. I like to introduce who I am writing about and why I like
them and then give a sample of their music. I don’t mind if the band I am writing about gets a lot of
publicity or a little; I’ll write about them if I like them.
this?
I try to keep it as fresh as possible. There have been a few artists that have featured more than once
though. This is usually because I like their pre-album single and then if I really like the album when it
comes out I will write again.
Almost every post has a YouTube video are a streamed song. I also like to include pictures of the
artist I am writing about that come from other blogs. This allows me to link to other blogs and cross
promote.

Yes No
Yes No
Audience
Anyone looking for music they haven’t heard before.
Not a lot. I get comments once in awhile, usually from bands trying to promote themselves. Each
one I get I will give a genuine listen to and if I like them I will write a post about them. This has only
happened once though, with the Belle Brigade.
Yes No
Not always, it really all depends on whether or not I like the music suggested.
Name of your blog: TheSubjectiveListener (www.thesubjectivelistener.wordpress.com)
Less than 10 10-50 50-100 100-200 200-500 500+
Any other comments?

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