Perlmutter--a professor at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Kansas--also highlights the reasons why blogging has become so popular:

1. It's a great equalizer. "For thousands of years of human history, the elites (or their paid scribes, artists, and heralds) were the only one disseminating messages via mass communication," says Perlmutter. With blogs, just about anyone with an Internet access can broadcast his or her opinions. Say, you want generate support for a charity or cause. You could write about it and encourage more people to get involved.

2. It's a hotline to the top. As Perlmutter points out, blogging allows ordinary people to practically "send out memos to the powerful that instantly become public documents." Want to get the president's attention about the state of education or health care in the country? Just post something and there's a chance he might read it and consider your concerns when they're crafting policies.

3. It gets to the heart of the matter. In the world of blogs, everything becomes personal. As an example, Perlmutter cites a blogger named CaptB, a Marine in Iraq whose blog One Marine's View offers a glimpse of what it's really like to be in the middle of a war. His posts transform the war from an abstract concept to something "more real" for people. This way--no matter how we feel about the war--we won't automatically demonize those who are there.

While the information contained in blogs (as well as in other forms of media) should not be taken as gospel truth at first glance, it's clear that they encourage people to think for themselves and examine other perspectives. That, of course, is how change begins.