When blogs become organizations

Abstract

This study first examines the degree to which public interest bloggers are adopting organizational forms and processes as they pursue heightened popularity, status, and advertising revenue. The study also examines the relationship between organizational form and formality of content; relationships between pursuit of revenue, organizational form and level of popularity are also assessed. Informed by classic organizational theory, the study involves an analysis of 151 public issue blogs. Most blogs demonstrated aspects of organizational form by adopting rules and policies, employing staff, and pursuing revenue. Pursuit of revenue corresponds with popularity in the blogosphere as well as with frequency of posting. Pursuit of revenue also correlates positively with organizational form, which in turn correlates positively with traditional journalistic practices such as primary source reporting, source balance, and fact-based rather than opinion-based reporting.