The impact of the cessation of blogs within the UK police blogosphere

This article investigates the concept of influence within a group of police work-bloggers. During the period studied (2007–2013), three influential police bloggers, well-known within the small and tightly knit UK police blogosphere, abruptly ended their blogging activity. Their cessation stimulated others to reconsider their own blogging and led to several bloggers ceasing to blog for fear of being outed and disciplined or because they had been warned by superiors. This can be seen as part of a wider phenomenon as increasing blog surveillance has resulted in a reduction of work-related blogs. The study shows that work-blogging cessation is influenced by the activities or perceived activities of bloggers' peers and that, while internal factors were influential in the creation of new work-blogs, external factors—in particular, fear of consequences for their career—were the predominant influences on their cessation.