Pew report on blogging

Heard on the radio this morning that the Pew Internet and American Life Project says that something above 40 percent of those surveyed have checked out a blog about the Southeast Asian tsunamis. I can't find the report on the Pew Web site this morning, but Pew did release a report this weekend that says among other things:

• 7 percent of U.S. Internet users say they have created blogs -- 8 million Americans. (It's gone up about 2 percentage points in each of the three surveys Pew has done since June 2002.)
  
• But then again, 62 percent do not know what a blog is
• 27 percent said they have read blogs, up from 17 percent in a February survey. That's 32 million Americans reading blogs. Much of the growth was the result of political blogs and the election.
  
• Those who read blogs tend to be male, young and well-educated -- a little more mainstream, but not too much, from those who post (implications here for "we" media projects). But there also has been greater-than-average growth among women, minorities, those 30-49, and those of us with dial-up connections at home.
  
• Previous Pew work shows that most people who post to blogs update them once a week or less often (I plead guilty to such stretches)

Links to a couple of stories on the release: AP and Steve Rubel.

And here's an interesting story on the International Herald Tribune (from the NY Times) about blogging and the tsunami: "Tsunami brings out Blogs' best and worst." Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine does a pretty good job of taking that story apart.