Internet users trust blogs as much as traditional media

A survey carried out by Microsoft Asia Pacific finds that 51 per cent of about 1,000 respondents of its survey in Singapore believe in blog content as much as they do in traditional media. From Channel NewsAsia:

Half of Internet users in Singapore rate blogs to be as trustworthy as traditional media such as print, radio and television, according to a survey. Microsoft Asia-Pacific reported Tuesday that Internet users in several Asian countries found blogs to be a "relatively trusted source of information".

The caveat - it was an online survey, among Internet users about blogs.

But the trust level in more established blogospheres such as Singapore and Korea is slightly higher...

Across Asia, around half of the respondents trust blogs as much as they did the traditional media, too. Microsoft's Southeast Asia sales director Richard Huggins described the finding as "very encouraging" and a symptom of a more mature blogosphere.

The same survey also reveals that almost half of those online in Asia have a blog, and 40 percent of these bloggers are blogging for more than three hours a week. From iTWire:

Perhaps not surprisingly blogging is primarily a pastime of the young: only nine percent of those surveyed were over 34 and 56 percent were under 25. However, perhaps surprisingly, blogging is not predominantly a male pastime: overall 55 percent of respondent bloggers were female, but in India blogging is overwhelmingly a male domain.

According to Microsoft's MSN and Windows Live Online Services Business, which conducted the survey. "The research showed that blogging is a social phenomenon with Asians primarily blogging as a means to maintain and build their social connections and to express themselves. [However] blogging as a corporate or business tool still appears to be nascent in most markets, with little interest from consumers in blogs from business or political leaders.

"The exceptions are online powerhouse Korea where blogging has permeated all aspects of life and India where a culture of self-improvement is seeing business related blogs become very popular."

This is interesting news. Half of internet users in Singapore trust blogs as much as traditional media. It could be just a small survey (only 1000 respondents in Singapore) but I'm positive that more and more people who use the internet will look to blogs as a reliable source of news and information. Expect this percentage to increase pretty rapidly.

If that's the case, then it is important that bloggers, especially those running popular blogs, should take the responsibility to make sure that the news or information they write are accurate and legit. And like their traditional media counterparts, they should be accountable for what they write if they want to be trusted and treated seriously by readers.