Blog fever is gripping the city of Syracuse and Syracuse University.

A recent study published by Scarborough Research named Syracuse as the 17th most prominent city in adult bloggers.

Gary A. Meo, senior vice president for print and digital media services at Scarborough, said in an e-mail interview that the study was done as part of an ‘ongoing survey of consumer, lifestyle, shopping and media behavior of adults in 81 U.S. markets.’ He also said it was because ‘the growing trend of consumer-generated media is beginning to play an important role in Americans’ daily lives.’

There are 64 blogs listed on Syracuse.com, an affiliate of The Post-Standard, but the university is not far behind in contributing to the growth of blogging in the city.

‘Syracuse ranks high because it has several of the characteristics that correlate with blogging activity, not the least of which is the presence of Syracuse University,’ Meo said.

Meo said Syracuse’s ranking was not at all surprising, specifically because of the university’s presence.

‘The common characteristics of the high-ranking cities include high Internet penetration, high broadband penetration, a young, well-educated population, the presence of high-tech employment opportunities and the presence of colleges and universities,’ he said.

Mark Obbie, a professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a blogger himself, said he expected academia to play a role in the volume of blogging.

‘Any university town is going to have a lot of people who think others want to hear what they want to say,’ Obbie said. ‘And I would imagine there are a few professors like myself who blog, which adds to the number.’

Freshman Dan Orlando said he has noticed the growth of blogging at SU and at most colleges. He hosts a New York Giants blog with two students from Quinnipiac University. He said that blogging is a necessary step to continue his writing career.

‘I still get to write, hone my journalistic skills and get my thoughts out there – where millions of people can see – by writing a blog,’ Orlando said. ‘Our blog is very professional, and it gives us a lot of much-needed experience for our future careers in journalism.’

Obbie said he believes blogging is an essential tool for both journalism students and the everyday person. Obbie’s blog, called ‘Lawbeat,’ covers reporting on law, lawyers and the courts.

‘It’s a good way for me to keep one leg in the professional world,’ he said. ‘It keeps my visibility higher than if I was simply expressing my thoughts in the classroom. It’s a great daily creative outlet that can turn into something more formed and thought-out and be written to a larger audience than my classes.’

Blogging makes it easier for students to gain writing experience, Obbie said.

‘It’s so easy for anyone now. When I was journalism student, if you wanted to get published, you had to go and beg to a short list of places that might hire you, and there was no alternative,’ he said. ‘Now, anybody can be up and running in five minutes for no money; it’s obviously very seductive.’

Meo, from Scarborough, said the popularity of blogging has risen because ‘the Internet has provided consumers with new ways to interact with media, and consumers want to interact. They want to have conversations, share experiences and participate in a community. The Internet allows us to interact in ways that traditional media can’t.’

Blogs may even create publicity for the university.

‘If people at the university make a name for themselves, it sends a clear signal that this is a place that is engaged and cares about these things in the outside world,’ Obbie said. ‘It significantly raises our profile.’

As a blogger, Orlando said blogging only helps SU, and particularly Newhouse, in the future.

‘This is what we’re all about here,’ he said. ‘Blogging follows Syracuse’s traditions and beliefs. We just built a building that has the First Amendment written on it, and blogging is one of the ways we can take advantage of our First Amendment rights.’

Published on November 7, 2007 at 12:00 pm