OK finished listening... I think Nick hit a very good point about why blogs exploded, and that is people are unsatisfied with MSM news and other programs. And the MSM that has been sitting comfortably on this media monopoly is seeing it´s starting to be taken down, right before their eyes. Blogging opens up a huge space for more communication. These are some reflections I had about why blogging is booming and will continue to do so: 3) the personal content often builds connections with other "mundane" people with similar experiences (and usually many such topics are never written about in MSM, exactly because they are too mundane or too personal, deemed un-newsworthy, but it makes up a big slice of life) 6) it can be highly interactive and lead to the building of virtual communities; it breaks the top-down model of most other communication media and even creates a down-top channel in certain instances 8) in an era where most non-formal written communications between individuals reached, at the highest, sloppily written e-mails, blogs also open up a possibility for non-professional writers to practice and improve their writing. Although we can see that many of the most popular blogs that seriously discuss diverse topics are usually written by people who have a profession related to serious experience in writing, such as professors, that is not always the case. 9) blogs reproduce the same echo chambers of views and values that individuals seek to be part of in other circumstances, that is, a person will most likely seek to read blogs that maintain their worldview only, but because of the interactive commenting and discussion aspect of blogging, that may generate a space for collision of views I thought it was a very good program. The host did do a good job asking some interesting questions. I am glad you got to say one of your most intelligent advice too, don´t blog in anger about your job. And that people are unsatisfied with MSM. alessandrab.blogspot.com