Blogging Gratifies Engagement Need for Internet Users in Media-Constrained Environment

Bahtiyar Kurambayev ¹

Abstract

Results of survey from a snowball convenient sample of Kyrgyz bloggers (N = 263) showed that internet users are motivated primarily to blog for information, recreation and engagement needs. The information motivation was the strongest motivation among the survey participants while engagement was the strongest factor in predicting the frequency of their blogging activities. The results revealed a negative relationship with recreation motivation and blogging, suggesting internet users with recreation motivation tend to blog less compared to others. The data also revealed no gender difference among bloggers of Kyrgyzstan contradicting existing scholarship. This finding is a surprising in a context where women are excluded from decision making processes. The results are explained via uses and gratifications theory.

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