Online blogs, specifically those that offer reviews of products, services and technologies, increasingly attract interest among practitioners of public relations as well as academic scholars. While the literature has addressed the significance of blogs as a public relations tool, limited research has been devoted to the responses of blog readers. This paper focuses on the extent to which online consumers exhibit scepticism towards these blogs. We validated a scepticism scale traditionally employed in advertising research to understand consumer scepticism towards blogs. The survey amongst Australian online consumers confirmed the relationship between selected demographics and blog reader scepticism.
Godkänd; 2010; 20101112 (ysko)