Passage 6

Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.

The blogging craze of a couple of years ago, when it was estimated that ten new blogs were started somewhere in the world every minute, now seems to have died down a bit. Yet thousands of blogs—probably the better ones—remain. Blogs are now no longer seen as the exclusive possession of geeks, and are now seen as important and influential sources of news and opinions. So many people read blogs now that it has even been suggested that some blogs may have been powerful enough to influence the result of the recent U.S. election.

Blogs are very easy to set up. All you need is a computer, an internet connection and the desire to write something. A blog differs from a traditional internet site in two ways. First, a blog is one page consisting mostly of texts, though a few pictures are sometimes provided. Second, and more importantly, a blog is a space for people to respond to what you write. The best blogs are similar to online discussions, where people write in response to what the blogger has written. Blogs are regularly updated—busy blogs are updated every day, or even every few hours.

Not all blogs are about politics, however. There are blogs about music, films, sports, books—any subject you can imagine has its enthusiasts typing away and giving their opinions to fellow enthusiasts or anyone else who cares to read their opinions.

But how influential, or important, is the blogosphere really? One problem with blogs is that many people who read and write them seem only to communicate with each other. When people talk about the influence of the blogosphere, they do not take into account the millions of people around the world who are not bloggers, never read blogs, and don't even have access to a computer, let alone a good internet connection.

Sometimes, it seems that the blogosphere exists only to influence itself, or that its influence is limited to what is actually quite a small community. Blogs seem to promise a virtual democracy—in which anyone can say anything they like, and have their opinions heard—but who is actually listening to these opinions? Little hard evidence shows that blogs have influenced people in the way that traditional mass media such as television and newspapers are able to do.

 Now the blogging craze ______.