The trend is on in Russia, too, as blogs are offering a viable alternative to the traditional media outlets, remarks the Novaya Gazeta weekly.
LiveJournal is one of the world's best-loved blogger services. Russia is no exception her. It ranks the world's 4th for the number of LiveJournal users, coming after the USA, Canada and the UK. The journal has close on 150,000 registered Russian accounts.
Certain analysts ascribe LiveJournal popularity in this country to Russian mental specifics. Russian blogs have a pronounced national character, and do not resemble their US counterparts in the slightest. We Russians have had enough of politics, and we want to talk about what really interests us. LiveJournal has developed here into a site for recreation, striking acquaintances, self-expression, and an escape from drab everydays. Amateur literary pursuits dominate Russian blogging, with satire and tongue-in-cheek confessions in the foreground. Americans, on the contrary, prefer professionals of journalism who come up with views running counter to corporate.
Information overloads and a lack of public attention will certainly develop into principal problems quite soon. Sober-minded people expect blogs to lose the charm of novelty. Even the most daring muckraking journalism will no longer arouse the present-day overwhelming public interest, warn skeptics.
