* "...blogger power, the capacity of blog operators to make buzz and influence decision-makers, is circumstantial: dependent on the sorts of information available, and contingent on the behavior of other public voices." (dependent...contingent...blech, I want the "power" part!)
* "Political bloggers were buzz followers as much as buzz makers." (well, that's not so bad I guess, whatever it means!)
* "Blogs are hot" and the "blogger audience now commands respect: it stands at 20% of the newspaper audience and 40% of the talk radio audience." (great, we're hot; but will this impress women?)
* "Today, bloggers have buzz partly because a few dozen of them, known as the ?A-list? or ?political blogs,? have been hailed as a new force in national politics." (hey, when do I get to be on the "A-list?" Is Virginia politics on the "B-list" or what?)
* "...the blog as a net form is conducive to buzz," and "whatever is buzzworthy anywhere can be brought to the attention of a blog readership." (damn, there's that word "buzz" again...what is this, a beehive or something?)
* "The political blogs don?t have big promotion budgets, statutory or propriety authority over information, large staffs, mass audiences, social respectability, or armored divisions." (tell us something ELSE we don't know!)
* "They do have access to a lot of information, the appeal of the individual voice, a devotion to the subject of politics, and tools to share what they see, hear, and say with others possessing similar devotion." (just say it, we're a bunch of political geekoids)
* "Name-calling, chest-thumping, partisan outing (the hostile brandishing of another person?s political connections and activities), and violent verbiage were commonplace in the data set, especially in the reader comment sections to blog posts..." (damn reader comments, gotta do something about them; especially Pastor John!)
* "Political blog entries often consist of a clever headline, an excerpt from and link to a news report with a fresh detail, and a captioning phrase of approbation or contempt." (yeah, that sounds familiar...it's called "snark" I believe)
So there you have it, bloggers are a "hot" bunch of "buzz-making" "buzz-followers" with no money, staff, social respectability, or much of anything else except for our bad attitudes. Oh yeah, we're also heavily "dependent" on other sources of information - in other words, we're parasitical! Hey, I don't know about you all, but I'm feeling really good about myself today, B-list blogger that I am. Well, I suppose it beats complete obscurity.
P.S. Thanks to Pew for letting me leech off of them for this blog post! Now, can I get on your "A-list" please? :)