Why do we blog? From the perspectives of technology acceptance and media choice factors

Abstract

Blogs, or weblogs, have rapidly grown in recent years. Blogs are easy to use, possess interactive features and attract widespread use, leading them to be recognised as a communication medium in web-based information technology. However, why do so many people use blogs? The purpose of this study is to incorporate the technology acceptance model (TAM) with media choice factors to explain and predict blog acceptance behaviours. The media choice factors include media richness, critical mass, social influence (SI) and media experience (ME). This study conducted an online field survey and applied the structure equation modelling method to investigate the empirical strength of the relationships in the proposed model. In this study, 521 experienced blog users were surveyed to examine this model. The results strongly support the proposed hypotheses, indicating that technology acceptance and media choice factors influence blog acceptance behaviours. This article provides implications and recommendations resulting from the study.